• 


REESE   LIBRARY 

THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Deceived   UlOfiT:*      I  ' 
Accessions  No.&O  14-1 3  .      Class  A 


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p 


«T  v^rf. 


38 


WORKS  BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 


./Esthetics ;  or,  Science  of  Beauty.  8vo,  cloth  .  .  $i  50 
Philosophy  of  Rhetoric.  New  edition.  8vo,  cloth .  .125 

Comparative  Psychology.  8vo,  cloth  .  .  .  i  50 

Science  of  Mind  (Psychology  rewritten).  8vo,  cloth  .  2  oo 

Philosophy  of  English  Literature.  8vo,  cloth  .  i  50 
A  Philosophy  of  Religion  ;  or,  The  Rational  Grounds 

of  Religious  Belief.  8vo,  cloth  .  .  .  2  oo 

Growth  and  Grades  of  Intelligence.  i2mo,  cloth  .  i  50 

Ethics ;  or,  Science  of  Duty.  i2mo,  cloth  .  .  i  75 

Natural  Theology.  8vo,  cloth i  50 

The  Words  of  Christ  as  Principles  of  Personal  and 

Social  Growth.  8vo,  cloth i  50 

Problems  in  Philosophy.  8vo,  cloth  .  .  .  i  50 

Sociology.  8vo,  cloth i  50 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  NEW  YORK 


SOCIOLOGY 


BY 


JOHN   BASCOM 

AUTHOR  OF   "  POLITICAL   ECONOMY,"    "  ETHICS,"  ETC, 


SEL 

OF    T 

UNIVERSITY 


NEW  YORK  &  LONDON 

G.   P.   PUTNAM'S    SONS 
Cf)c  lUicftevbodter 


COPYRIGHT  BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
1887. 


Press  of 

G.  P.  Putnam1  s  Sons, 
New    York, 


PREFACE. 


THOUGH  the  work  here  offered  the  public  is  termed 
Sociology,  it  does  not  promise  a  full  and  systematic  dis- 
cussion of  the  subject.  Its  aim  is  more  simple  and  nar- 
row. It  passes  familiar  principles,  and  principles  to 
which  the  author  can  make  no  important  additions,  and 
concentrates  attention  on  points  at  which  he  is  best  able 
to  reward  it ;  and  this  with  only  secondary  reference  to 
general  symmetry.  There  is  in  the  book  a  constant  un- 
willingness to  accumulate  material  of  no  new  value. 

The  work  is,  however,  a  sociology  in  the  fact  that  all 
its  discussions  tend  to  outline  the  entire  field,  and  to 
give,  in  their  relation  to  each  other,  the  distinct  depart- 
ments which  it  embraces.  While  theoretical  complete- 
ness is  by  no  means  a  matter  of  indifference  in  this  irea- 
tise,  there  is  a  predominant  interest  in  questions  of  imme- 
diate moment  to  society.  Not  much  is  attempted  by 
way  of  formal  inductive  proof.  The  mind  is  easily  mis- 
led by  the  appearance  of  this  proof,  when  it  is  really 
wanting.  The  facts  of  society  cover  so  large  a  field,  and 
are  so  flexible  in  interpretation,  that  it  is  not  difficult  to 
marshal  them  in  considerable  numbers  in  behalf  of  any 
fairly  rational  statement.  Falstaff's  ragged  regiment 
can  be  picked  up  by  the  roadside.  These  promiscuous 
facts  have  more  effect  on  the  mind  than  properly  belongs 
to  them. 

No  proof  can  rest  ultimately  on  simple  facts  as  facts. 
It  must  lie  in  their  interpretation,  their  rational  rendering. 
That  view  which  broadly  covers  human  experience,  and 

v 


vi  PREFACE. 

gives  to  it  the  light  of  fitting  ideas,  is  thereby  proved. 
It,  and  it  only,  addresses  itself  to  rational  insight  and 
satisfies  it.  A  good  deal,  therefore,  which  to  the  empir- 
ical mind  may  seem  to  be  proof  is  not  proof,  and  much 
that  seems  to  it  simple  assertion  carries  with  it  the  most 
complete  authority.  What  we  have  to  say  will  occasion- 
ally come  under  this  condemnation  of  lacking  proof, 
simply  because  the  proof  we  rely  on  is  the  coherent  con- 
nection of  ideas,  and  the  suitableness  of  these  ideas  to 
the  facts  which  they  cover.  This  suitableness  will  not 
show  itself  as  a  contact  established  here  and  there  with 
human  experience,  but  as  a  broad  conformity  to  it  over 
wide  surfaces.  Whether  the  idea  offered  gives  light,  each 
man  must  decide  for  himself ;  and  if  it  gives  light  it  will 
not  be  necessary  often  to  say  :  Behold,  this  and  this  are 
now  visible. 

Our  facts  will  be  chiefly  used  as  illustrations,  making 
the  idea  more  plain.  The  proof  must  stand  forth  jn  its 
own  light,  and  in  the  reflected  light'  of  the  manifold 
things  illuminated  by  it.  While  we  believe  most  de- 
voutly in  an  empirical  method  as  bringing  to  speculation 
its  only  safe  lines  of  thought,  and  its  only  sufficient  cor- 
rections within  those  lines,  we  must  still  think  that  the 
mind  is  satisfied  only  with  its  own  fruits  ;  that  the  ulti- 
mate is  made  ultimate  by  the  mind  itself,  is  the  simple 
assurance  of  intellectual  vision.  Light  so  opens  the  world 
that  we  have  only  occasion  to  see  by  means  of  it ;  and  if 
we  see,  we  shall  ask  no  farther  proof  of  the  light  which 
makes  the  revelation. 

In  this  work  I  have  again  done  what  I  have  already 
been  criticised  for  doing  :  I  have  covered  a  large  field 
suggestively,  rather  than  a  narrow  field  exhaustively. 
Something  is  due  to  one's  habit  of  mind  in  choice  of 
method.  I  think  also  that  this  method  is  often  to  be 


PREFACE.  vii 

deliberately  preferred  in  practical  value,  though  it  may 
involve  a  loss  in  personal  estimation. 

There  is  much  in  this  volume  that  can  readily  be  mis- 
understood, and  which  will  naturally  meet  with  warm  dis- 
sent. It  is  the  more  desirable,  therefore,  that  no  part  of 
this  criticism  should  miss  its  mark  unnecessarily.  I 
therefore  here  draw  attention  to  the  fact,  as  also  in  the 
body  of  the  work,  that  the  word  morality  is  used  in  a 
much  wider  sense  than  that  in  which  it  is  frequently  em- 
ployed, and  that  many  obvious  difficulties  will  disappear 
if  this  is  borne  in  mind. 


THIS   VOLUME,    GLEANED   AMID   THE    LENGTHENING    SHADOWS   OF 
LIFE,    IS    AFFECTIONATELY   INSCRIBED   TO 

ARTHUR  LATHAM  PERRY, 

WITH   WHOM,    IN   THE   FIRST   ENTHUSIASM  OF  EFFORT,    I 

OPENED    MY    INQUIRIES     INTO  THIS   CLASS   OF 

SUBJECTS. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

SECTION.  PAGE. 

1.  Complexity  of  the  facts  of  sociology I 

2.  Social  sciences — their  relation  to  each  other 3 

CHAPTER  I. 

CUSTOM. 

1.  Divisions  of  sociology ;  divisions  of  customs 6 

2.  Social  customs 7 

3.  Religious  customs 9 

4.  Civil  customs ID, 

5.  The  function  of  customs n 

6.  The  earlier  and  later  relations  of  customs 13 

7.  Conservative  power  of  custom 15 

8.  Difference  of  different  customs  in  conservative  power 18 

9.  Relations  of  custom  to  law  and  public  opinion 20 

10.  Law  and  public  opinion 23 

11.  Nature  of  public  opinion 24 

12.  Conditions  of  progress 26 

CHAPTER  II. 

GOVERNMENT. 

1.  The  military  era,  as  one  of  concentration 28 

2.  The  industrial  era,  as  one  of  diffusion 30 

3.  The  nature  and  growth  of-liberty 32 

4.  Powers,  duties,  rights,  justice,  equality 36 

5.  The  organic  relation  not  one  of  equality 40 

6.  Diffusion  and  combination  as  mutually  corrective 43 

7.  The  office  of  the  state 45 

8.  Growth  arrested  with  the  arrest  of  diffusion 48 

9.  The  right  of  the  state  to  render  aid 51 

10.  The  ability  of  the  state  to  render  aid 54 

ix 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  III. 

ECONOMICS. 

SECTION.  PAGE. 

1.  Axioms  of  political  economy 58 

2.  The  first  axiom  as  modified  by  circumstances 61 

3.  The  second  axiom  and  its  modifications 65 

4.  The  third  primary  principle 70 

5.  Employer  and  employee. 73 

6.  Economic  laws  and  moral  laws 77 

CHAPTER  IV. 

RELIGION. 

1.  Religion  and  development 82 

2.  Development  toward  the  unity  of  God 84 

3.  Development  toward  the  personality  of  God 86 

4.  Development  toward  the  wisdom  of  God 91 

5.  Development  toward  the  goodness  of  God 92 

6.  Omnipresence 93 

7.  The  supernatural 96 

8.  Immortality 102 

9.  The  nature  of  this  development 104 

10.  The  nature  of  this  development 107 

11.  Division  of  religions in 

12.  Nature  of  the  religious  problem 1 13 

13.  Development  in  Christian  faith 1 14 

CHAPTER  V. 

ETHICS. 

1.  Empirical  ethics , 120 

2.  Intuitional  ethics 125 

3.  The  scope  of  ethics 129 

CHAPTER  VI. 

ETHICS  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO    CUSTOMS  AND    ECONOMICS. 

1.  Society  as  organic 132 

2.  How  customs  are  reshaped 133 

3.  Tyranny  of  customs .* 137 

4.  The  balance  between  custom  and  conviction 138 

5.  Political  parties  and  social  progress 140 

6.  Relation  of  ethics  to  economic  laws 144 


CONTENTS.  xi 


CHAPTER   VII. 

ETHICAL  LAW  IN  CONNECTION  WITH  GOVERNMENT  AND  RELIGION. 

SECTION.  PAGE. 

1.  Ethical  law  enlarges  civil  law 149 

2.  Ethical  development  in  civics » 150 

3.  Ethical  failure  in  civics 1 54 

4.  Method  of  correction 1 56 

5.  Method  of  correction 158 

6.  Morality  and  religion 160 

7.  Failures  of  religion  in  morality 163 

8.  Failures  of  religion  in  morality 166 

9.  Failures  of  religion  in  morality 168 

10.  Present  failures 166 

11.  Religion  and  the  supernatural 171 

12.  Misdirection  of  the  religious  spirit 175 

13.  Conditions  of  religious  growth 178 

CHAPTER  VIIL 

SOCIAL     PROBLEMS. 

1.  Rights  of  women — ideals 184 

2.  Social  bearings  of  the  question 193 

3.  Prohibition 194 

4.  Public  education 203 

5.  Equal  civic  advantages — taxation 209 

6.  Franchises — copyright 215 

7.  Fictitious  sales 223 

8.  Laws  of  entail  and  inheritance 226 

9.  Law  a  living  presence 227 

10.  Competition  as  a  natural  law 229 

11.  Mission  of  the  pulpit 239 

12.  Socialism 244 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  GOAL. 

1.  The  kingdom  of  heaven 249 

2.  The  sense  of  social  power 250 

3.  Incidents  of  a  bad  inheritance 253 

4.  Aid  rendered  by  science 254 

5.  Aid  rendered  by  philosophy 257 


xii  CONTENTS. 

SECTION.  PAGE. 

6.  Aid  rendered  by  religion 258 

7.  Aid  rendered  by  art 261 

8.  A  struggle  between  reason  and  authority 262 

9.  Spiritual  and  physical  terms  inseparable 263 


SOCIOLOGY. 


INTRODUCTION. 

g  i.  THE  facts  of  sociology  are  the  most  interesting 
and  the  most  complicated  anywhere  offered  to  our  atten- 
tion. They  are  the  most  interesting,  as  they  pertain  to 
the  highest  development  of  the  highest  life.  They  are 
the  most  complicated,  as  gathering  up  and  combining  all 
other  lines  of  action,  and  as  in  many  ways  indirectly 
affected  by  them.  Physical  facts,  in  their  full  variety, 
furnish  the  foundation  of  social  phenomena,  and  their 
constantly  changeable  and  controlling  conditions.  Nat- 
ural objects,  taken  singly  in  their  properties,  as  iron,  or 
brought  together  under  laws  in  great  aggregates,  as  in 
the  qualities  of  a  soil  or  the  character  of  a  climate,  inti- 
mately concern  men  and  society.  Science,  in  all  its  les-, 
sons,  is  addressed  to  the  human  mind,  and  gives  the  ma- 
terials, methods  and  incentives  to  labor.  And  yet,  when 
we  have  comparatively  fixed  antecedents  of  rational  life, 
the  life  itself  is  not  so  conditioned  to  them  as  either  to 
be  a  product  of  them,  or  bound  by  them  in  directions  of 
use.  The  uses  to  which  they  may  be  put  are  very  vari- 
ous, and  run  through  a  wide  range  of  service,  less  worthy 
or  more  worthy  according  to  the  intention  which  calls  it 
out.  The  house  is  for  the  occupant,  and  yet  may  be  oc- 
cupied in  very  different  ways. 

The    nature   of    man,   the    factors   which   he   himself 

i 


2  SOCIOLOGY. 

brings  to  the  factors  about  him,  are  to  be  searched  into 
with  even  more  diligence  than  we  direct  to  the  external 
world.  Thus  philosophy,  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of 
man,  adds  itself  in  sociology  to  science,  and  the  two  con- 
cur in  giving  the  primitive  elements  of  that  variable, 
fluctuating  compound,  human  society,  ever  moving  under 
its  own  laws  of  growth  and  decay  to  or  from  some  ^higher 
end. 

/  Sociology  is  a  discussion  of  the  conditions  and  laws  of 
;  combination  and  growth  in  society.  Change  here  is  either 
progress  or  retrogression,  and  so  is  a'  phase  either  of 
growth  or  of  decay.  While  we  do  well  to  be  ambitious  to 
know  all  that  we  can  know,  it  is  foolish  to  insist — and  in- 
sistence leads  to  ignorance — on  making  our  knowledge  in 
any  department  more  complete  than  it  can  from  the  na- 
ture of  the  case  be  made.  We  may  not  set  up  physical 
laws  as  the  only  type  of  law,  then  assume  the  exist- 
ence of  laws  among  these  complicated  phenomena,  and 
regard  all  discussion  which  fails  to  reach  them  unsatis- 
factory. If  the  motion  of  three  or  more  bodies  in  mu- 
tual interaction  soon  becomes  too  complex  for  our  expo- 
sition, well  may  these  ultimate  movements  of  the 
physical  and  spiritual  world,  as  combined  in  society, 
evade  any  sufficient  and  exhaustive  formula.  It  is  the 
mistake  of  ignorance  to  urge  too  exact  a  result.  The 
difficulty  lies  not  simply  in  the  complexity  of  the  facts, 
insuperable  as  this  alone  would  be,  but  also  in  the  pres- 
ence of  higher,  freer  spiritual  laws,  themselves  less  ex- 
plicit, and  less  explicitly  applicable,  than  physical  laws. 
We  define  knowledge  too  closely  under  the  conceptions 
of  science,  and  that,  too,  science  at  work  on  its  simplest 
problems.  To  know  is  to  know  things  as  they  are,  and  if 
they  are  too  complex  for  complete  expression,  or  too 
personal  to  be  rendered  under  physical  terms,  knowledge 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

is  to  know  them  in  this  way.  Knowledge  does  not  owe 
its  value  to  its  being  science,  but  science  owes  its  value  to 
its  being  knowledge.  Knowledge  is  the  generic  idea 
under  which  science  is  a  species.  We  shall  strive  to  dis- 
cuss things  as  they  are,  without  making  them  one  jot  less 
complex  or  free  than  they  are.  Sociology,  above  all 
forms  of  inquiry,  must  be  approached  with  an  open  mind, 
undisturbed  by  new  and  distracting  elements. 

§  2.  We  may  speak  either  of  social  science,  or  of  social 
sciences.  The  latter  form  is  preferable  for  several 
reasons.  The  phases  of  action  embodied  in  society  are  so 
distinct — as,  for  example,  those  of  Political  Economy  and 
of  Ethics — as  to  admit  of  separate,  profitable  discussion. 
Indeed,  not  till  we  have  considered  these  separately  are 
we  ready  for  their  combination  in  human  intercourse. 
Each  one  of  these  fields  admits  of  distinct  principles 
narrowly  applied,  and  has  closer  terms  of  union  than  the 
entire  field. 

Moreover,  each  department  of  sociology — as  Political 
Economy — allows  separation  and  aggregation  into  a  prox- 
imate science  by  confining  attention  to  its  own  incentives, 
and  by  excluding  for  the  moment  those  considerations 
which  modify  their  force  in  society.  Herein  is  a  social 
anatomy  by  which  one  system  is  separated  from  con- 
joined systems  and  its  own  relations  pointed  out,  while 
we  wait  later  to  see  how  its  action  is  affected  by  inter- 
laced systems.  We  may  thus  know  much  more  of  one 
form  of  social  phenomena  than  of  other  associated  forms, 
and  much  more  than  we  know  in  sociology. 

Indeed,  this  disposition  to  divide  the  facts  of  society, 
and  so  to  secure  the  conditions  for  those  absolute  state- 
ments in  which  we  so  much  delight  as  the  completion  of 
knowledge,  has  been  often  carried  quite  too  far  in  the 
several  departments  of  sociology.  As,  however,  the 


4  SOCIOLOGY. 

scientific  method  finds  more  ready  entrance  by  this 
analysis,  and  as  the  analysis  prepares  us  for  a  more  in- 
structive synthesis,  it  is  well  to  speak  of  the  social  sci- 
ences, and  to  direct  attention  first  to  these  better  known 
specific  terms,  hoping  later  to  make  the  broader  survey 
of  society  as  a  whole. 

It  is  even  yet  early  to  speak  of  sociology.  But  little 
progress  has  been  made  in  the  combination  of  social, 
civil,  economic,  religious  and  ethical  terms  of  growth, 
into  a  sociology  that  shall  enable  us  to  understand  the 
orbit  of  society,  and  to  define,  in  reference  to  both  the 
past  and  the  future,  the  position  actually  occupied  by  us 
in  it.  We  must  win  very  distinct  and  complete  terms 
of  knowledge  in  each  department  of  social  science  before 
we  can  combine  them  into  anything  like  satisfactory 
statements.  Synthetically,  we  are  still  occupied  with 
loose  discussions  concerning  special  phases  of  social  phe- 
nomena, instead  of  formulating  results  into  full  and  final 
expression. 

It  may  well  be  doubted  whether,  considering  the  pres- 
ent tendency  and  acquired  force  of  words,  the  results  of 
social  inquiry  are  not  better  expressed  as  social  philos- 
ophy than  as  social  science.  Exact  measurement  and 
singleness  of  statement  are  to  such  a  degree  waived  when 
we  deal  with  society  as  a  living  product,  that  we  more 
fully  recognize  our  precise  footing  when  we  regard  so- 
ciology more  as  a  philosophy  of  the  facts  than  as  a  sci- 
ence of  them.  Spiritual,  personal  elements  so  predomi- 
nate in  society,  especially  in  its  advanced  stages,  as  to 
transfer  its  laws,  aims  and  achievements  more  and  more 
to  the  spiritual  world,  where  they  are  understood  by 
reasons  and  expounded  by  affections,  rather  than  traced 
to  causes  and  unravelled  into  forces.  Society,  the  seat 
of  the  affections  as  well  as  of  the  appetites,  of  spiritual 


IN  TROD  UCTION. 


5 


inspirations  as  well  as  of  worldly-wise  desires,  must 
always  receive  much  of  its  light  from  the  spiritual  world 
above  and  beyond  it.  We  have  in  its  comprehension, 
partial  as  that  comprehension  may  be,  that  synthesis 
of  the  elements  of  knowledge  and  sensibility  in  the  soul 
which  we  term  wisdom  rather  than  knowledge,  sympa- 
thetic insight  rather  than  exhaustive  enumeration,  phi- 
losophy rather  than  science. 

In  our  slight  discussion  of  sociology  we  shall  speak 
cursorily,  and  under  the  narrow  ends  that  we  propose, 
first,  of  the  distinct  departments  which  constitute  it, 
then  of  the  interaction  of  these  departments,  and  later  of 
the  light  thus  brought  to  urgent  social  questions,  and  to 
the  lines  of  growth  which  lie  before  us. 


CHAPTER    I. 

CUSTOM. 

§  I.  INDIRECTLY  sociology  involves  every  force  that 
touches  human  life,  and  so  may  be  said  to  spread  out 
into  all  knowledge.  It  ought,  however,  directly  to  include 
only  those  departments  of  action  whose  immediate  and 
primary  office  it  is  to  organize  society.  Language  as  an 
instrument  of  social  life  is  greatly  modified  by  that  life 
and  in  turn  modifies  it.  The  same  is  true  of  literature 
and  art ;  yet  as  each  language  has  methods  and  laws 
which  look  simply  to  the  communication  of  ideas,  and 
not  to  social  construction,  we  should  not  place  language 
among  the  social  sciences.  We  confine,  then,  our  atten- 
tion to  those  agencies  which  are  directly  formative 
forces  in  society,  and  by  which  society  is  understood. 

There  are,  in  social  phenomena,  five  modes  of  action 
sufficiently  distinct  and  organic  to  be  termed  depart- 
ments of  sociology.  They  are  customs,  laws,  economics, 
religion  and  ethics.  While  these  phases  of  action  exist 
in  constant  modification  of  each  other,  they  each  present 
distinct  forms  and  peculiar  governing  forces.  With 
the  exception  of  custom  they  have  been  treated  as 
sciences,  and  the  principles  which  underlie  them  have 
been  extendedly  discussed.  The  phenomena  brought  to 
our  attention  under  custom  are,  indeed,  more  variable, 
more  vague  in  outline,  and  are  prompted  by  more  diver- 
sity of  motives  than  those  under  consideration  in  any 
other  social  topic ;  yet  they  are  also  more  simple,  more 

6 


CUSTOM.  j 

elementary,  more  pervasive,  more  fundamental  than  any 
other  lines  of  conduct.  Nor  are  these  phenomena  less 
true  to  themselves  in  form,  or  less  uniformly  obedient 
than  other  social  facts  to  the  incentives  which  sustain 
them.  They  all  the  more  call  for  distinct  discussion, 
because  they  bring  powerfully  modifying  circumstances 
to  every  other  type  of  social  action. 

A  custom  is  any  usual  method  of  action  defined  and 
enforced  by  the  tacit  assent  of  the  community,  or  of  the 
class,  to  which  it  belongs.  Its  essential  feature  is  a 
recognized  method  of  behavior  among  men  under  cir- 
cumstances frequently,  or  somewhat  frequently,  return- 
ing. Its  enforcement  lies  in  the  feelings  of  those  whom 
it  concerns,  and  its  implied  purpose  is  the  regulation  of 
joint  action  and  intercourse.  Customs,  therefore,  find 
their  way  everywhere  in  human  society. 

Customs  may  be  divided  into  social,  religious  and  civil 
customs.  Social  customs  may  be  divided  into  those 
which  pertain  to  the  family,  to  classes  and  to  general 
intercourse.  Religious  customs  are  rites  and  observ- 
ances. Civil  customs  appertain  to  economic  action,  to 
methods  in  civil  procedure  and  to  law. 

§  2.  The  very  first  point  of  organization  in  human 
society  is  the  family,  and  the  earliest  organic  forces  are 
the  domestic  customs  which  slowly  give  the  household 
a  definite  and  uniform  arrangement.  We  can  hardly  be 
mistaken  at  this  point.  The  household  is  so  deeply  es- 
tablished in  physical  instincts,  natural  affections,  personal 
interests  and  social  sentiments,  that  it  cannot  fail  of 
immediate  formation,  nor  fail  of  development  with  every 
step  of  progress.  The  entire  record  of  human  growth 
may  be  traced  consecutively  in  the  household,  and  every 
gift  of  enlightenment  has  crossed  its  threshold  with  new 
blessings.  Enough  of  this  movement  has  been  historical 


g  SOCIOLOGY. 

to  disclose  the  whole.  Custom  has  been  the  great  law- 
giver here.  Civil  law  has  rarely  intervened,  and  moral 
and  religious  sentiments  have  slowly  expressed  them- 
selves in  and  under  the  spirit  and  methods  of  the  home, 
kindling  new  lights  of  invitation,  direction  and  pleasure. 
So  pervasive,  persistent  and  forceful  have  been  domestic 
customs  that  it  is  not  strange  that  they  have  often  had 
their  own  altars  and  divinities. 

The  second  class  of  social  customs  are  those  which  de- 
fine and  maintain  distinctions  between  classes.  Much  of 
the  tyranny  and  bitterness  of  the  world  find  their  me- 
dium of  expression  in  these  customs,  and  they  are  often, 
therefore,  the  most  formidable  obstacles  to  human  prog- 
ress. These  customs  frequently  arise  in  connection 
with  conquest,  and  so  settle  and  extend  its  hard  terms. 
A  composite  nation  is  especially  open  to  harsh  customs, 
which  stand  for  the  unequal  conditions  under  which  its 
constituents  have  been  combined.  The  divisions  of  rank 
and  wealth  come  in  to  affiliate  with  these  distinctions  of 
race,  and  to  make  them  the  more  permanent  and  distress- 
ful. There  is  thus  represented  in  these  class-customs 
an  accumulation  of  near  and  remote  differences,  of  super- 
ficial and  permanent  feelings,  which  renders  them  very 
invincible  barriers  to  individual  movement.  They  tend 
strongly  to  perpetuate  and  deepen  the  obstructions  once 
established,  and  offer  terms  of  organization  of  a  very 
unjust,  irrational  and  inflexible  order.  Thus,  in  our  own 
Southern  States,  race,  knowledge,  social  position,  prop- 
erty, prejudice,  are  all  united  against  those  pure,  or- 
ganic forces  which  seek  to  build  up  society  on  open 
and  free  terms. 

A  third  class  of  social  customs  are  those  which  pertain 
to  manners.  These  apply  primarily  to  the  intercourse 
between  persons  who  stand  on  terms  of  proximate 


CUSTOM.  Q 

equality ;  but,  with  fitting  modifications,  they  shape 
also  the  social  contact  of  diverse  ranks.  The  rules  of 
etiquette  are  often  voluminous,  and  show  how  readily 
the  human  mind  makes  and  accepts  methods  of  conduct ; 
how  inevitably  and  even  fearfully  organic  it  is.  If  so- 
ciety is  not  growing  in  a  healthy  way,  it  proceeds  at  once 
to  entangle  itself  in  a  net-work  of  sporadic  and  constrict- 
ing fibres.  Those  who  deal  lightly  with  moral  obliga- 
tions, and  lend  a  reluctant  ear  to  civil  duties,  frequently 
feel  keenly  the  punctilio  of  elegant  manners,  and  take 
serious  offence  at  a  departure  from  these  laws  of  simula- 
tion and  assimilation  in  daily  intercourse.  Men  rejoice 
in  making  and  observing  methods  whose  first  merit  lies 
in  partially  concealing  the  facts  and  feelings  beneath 
them,  and  second  merit  in  mollifying  them.  When  we 
add  to  etiquette  the  variable  forms  and  iridescent  colors 
of  fashion,  we  secure  that  brilliant  spectacle  in  which  the 
social  instincts,  refined  out  of  all  solid  relation  to  the 
public  weal,  delight.  Society  becomes  sparkling  and  at- 
tractive, a  lake  alive  and  rippling  under  sunshine.  These 
social  customs  carry  with  them  a  weight  which,  though 
not  felt  to  be  heavy  for  the  moment,  is  so  pervasive  and 
constant  as  to  become  excessively  burdensome.  Society 
is  like  a  camel  whose  very  trappings  are  a  load. 

§  3.  Religious  customs  are  of  two  kinds,  rites  and  ob- 
servances. These  are  closely  allied,  and  may  easily  pass 
into  each  other.  Rites  are  the  more  definite  and  author- 
itative ;  observances  the  more  free  and  personal,  and  so 
often  of  more  intrinsic  worth.  Rites  are  religious  ac- 
tions ordered  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the 
servants  of  religion.  They  constitute  the  ceremonial  of 
any  given  faith.  Observances  are  religious  duties  en- 
trusted to  the  individual  in  the  precise  terms  and  circum- 
stances of  their  discharge.  Custom  may  go  far  in  mak- 


I0  SOCIOLOGY. 

ing  explicit  and  final  the  method  of  religious  observ- 
ances ;  and  yet  they  rest  with  the  person  whose  they  are 
rather  than  with  a  priesthood.  Baptism  is  a  rite;  the 
regard  of  the  Sabbath  is  an  observance.  The  spirituality 
of  Protestantism  is  shown  in  the  very  narrow  terms  to 
which  its  rites  have  been  reduced,  and  in  the  great  free- 
dom incident  to  its  observances. 

Religious  sentiment,  under  the  ingenuity  of  an  active, 
authoritative  and  numerous  hierarchy,  has  often,  in  the 
slow  progress  of  centuries,  given  rise  to  a  multiplicity  of 
customs,  which,  like  an  ample  outer  garment,  have 
wrapped  about  the  outer  life.  The  way  under  them  and 
the  way  out  of  them  has  been  alike  shut  up.  The  straight- 
ness  and  narrowness  of  the  approaches  to  religious  experi- 
ence have  been  like  those  to  a  fortified  place.  There  is 
something  incredible  and  portentous  in  the  fecundity  of 
the  religious  impulse,  for  example  in  the  Jewish  mind,  as 
shown  by  the  Mishna  and  Talmud.  The  lower  forms  of 
life  are  hardly  more  prolific  by  fission  than  were  the 
thoughts  of  a  rabbi  in  division,  redivision,  difference, 
variation.  When  a  faith  is  external  it  owes  its  per- 
vasive presence  to  this  increase  of  religious  customs. 

§  4.  Civil  customs  are  economic,  constructive  and  legal. 
Economic  customs  spring  up  immediately  in  connection 
with  exchange,  and  soon  acquire  a  force  which  gives 
them  legal  significance.  Not  only  does  convenience  in 
traffic  demand  proximate  uniformity  in  methods,  but 
uniformity  is  necessary  to  define  the  conditions  under 
which  transfer  is  legitimate  and  takes  effect.  The  civil 
law  guides  itself  by  the  customs  of  trade,  and  adopts 
them  as  an  essential  part  of  the  facts. 

Constructive  civil  customs  arise  at  once  in  government, 
and  accompany  every  stage  of  its  development.  What 
Spencer  terms  ceremonial  government  is  an  early  prod- 


CUSTOM. 


II 


uct  of  custom.  Constitutional  law  begins  in  custom, 
and  runs  its  entire  career  in  connection  with  it.  Inter- 
national law  is  customary  law,  and  owes  not  only  its  im- 
mediate force,  but  much  of  its  inner  reason,  to  custom. 
Manner  in  the  administration  of  law,  rules  of  evidence, 
forms  of  pleading  are  historic,  constructive  methods  that 
grow  up  conjointly  under  reason  and  custom. 

The  most  full,  wise  and  definite  result  of  custom  in 
connection  with  government  is  judicial  law,  or,  as  the 
English  races  term  it,  common  law.  There  is  no  point 
at  which  custom  departs  so  far  from  the  arbitrary  and 
the  accidental,  and  becomes  so  well  devised,  rational  and 
authoritative  a  method,  as  in  common  law.  This  is  the 
highest  development  of  custom, — so  high  that  it  seems 
almost  to  lose  its  character  as  a  product  of  custom  and 
to  become  the  expression  of  pure  reason  and  direct  pur- 
pose. Yet  this  rational  movement  has  been  a  hesitating 
one,  restrained  at  every  step  by  previous  and  present 
decisions,  by  the  force  of  current  legal  opinion  and  prac- 
tice. Its  root  is  one  of  custom,  though  it  has  ripened  in 
growth  under  a  clearer  light  of  reflection  than  is  usual. 

§  5.  Customs  are  the  earliest,  simplest  products  of  the 
organic  tendency  in  society.  They  arise  in  a  large  meas- 
ure unconsciously,  preceding  all  forms  of  conscious  con- 
struction, preparing  the  way  for  them,  and  accompany- 
ing them.  Custom  is  the  cellulose  tissue  of  the  social 
body,  occupying  all  vacant  places,  storing  material,  and 
ready  to  pass  into  more  specific  forms.  Customs  arise 
inevitably  among  social,  rational  beings.  They  are  the 
simplest  suggestions  of  sense  and  sentiment  in  methods 
of  intercourse.  Customs  are  an  expression  of  feelings 
quite  as  much  as  of  reasons,  and  often  of  very  narrow 
and  passionate  ones.  Customs  stand  for  the  lines  of 
least  resistance  in  the  combination  of  social  forces.  We 


12 


SOCIOLOGY. 


have  to  consider  in  their  formation  both  the  feelings  of 
those  who  are  parties  to  them,  and  also  their  relative 
strength.  These  sentiments  and  this  strength  express 
themselves  in  the  forms  of  intercourse  which  we  term 
customs.  Intercourse  in  the  outset  is  shaped  almost 
wholly  by  personal  feelings  and  by  interest,  and  only 
slowly  yields  to  ethical  motives.  Growth  in  customs 
takes  place  between  the  two  extremes  of  urgent  self- 
interest  and  the  far  off  force  of  general  well-being. 
Neither  motive  is  ever  entirely  wanting,  though  they 
sustain  very  different  relations  to  each  other  at  different 
times. 

The  primitive  organism,  the  family,  is  first  defined  in 
its  limits  and  duties  by  custom,  a  custom  grossly  fash- 
ioned by  dominant  appetites  and  passions  and  powers 
and  interests.  These  coarse  motives,  sufficing  at  once 
to  secure  something  like  a  family,  are  very  slowly  dis- 
placed by  more  extended  and  refined  ones,  are  softened 
by  natural  affections,  and  are  at  length  led  into  that 
large  expression  which  is  shaped  by  our  purest  feelings 
under  the  highest  spiritual  law. 

Customs  are  the  spontaneous  adjustment  of  proxi- 
mately  rational  action  to  the  conditions  under  which  it 
arises.  Between  inferiors  and  superiors,  the  weak  and 
the  strong,  they  are  due  to  prudent  concession  on  the 
one  side  and  ready  assertion  on  the  other ;  between 
equals,  to  a  tacit  definition  of  rights  and  avoidance  of  the 
grounds  of  strife.  No  matter  how  rude  society  may  be, 
it  gives  occasion  at  once  for  customs ;  no  matter  how 
refined  it  may  be,  this  higher  temper  must  still  clothe 
itself  in  appropriate  customs.  They  are  the  unspoken 
language  of  human  intercourse. 

Customs  run  before  reason.  Arising  directly  from 
feeling,  they  are  only  slightly  modified  by  principles. 


CUSTOM.  J3 

The  feelings  which  sustain  them  are  in  turn  nourished 
by  them,  and  so  the  deeper  truths  of  life  find  discovery 
and  entrance  but  slowly.  Customs  lie  between  those 
who  stand  on  unequal  terms  of  advantage  more  fre- 
quently than  between  equals,  and  thus  they  are  deeply 
colored  by  the  assertion  and  the  tyranny  of  strength. 
Social  and  religious  customs  are  for  this  reason  more 
exacting  than  civil  ones,  and  earlier  civil  customs  than 
later  ones.  When  the  law  begins  to  regard  those  who 
appear  before  it  as  proximately  equal,  a  middle  line  of 
justice  is  approached  in  method  and  principle  of  action. 
The  degree  in  which  social  customs  are  the  expression 
of  feeling  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  they  are  largely  en- 
trusted to  women,  and  more  vigorously  enforced  by  them 
than  by  men.  Religious  customs  spring  up  in  connec- 
tion with  the  strong  feelings  and  urgent  experiences  of 
a  profession,  and  are  sustained  by  minds  especially  im- 
pressible in  this  direction.  Sentiments  rooted  in  the 
heart  and  fortified  by  custom  pass  almost  unchallenged 
for  long  periods  in  the  religious  world.  In  the  degree 
in  which  civil  customs  approach  the  domain  of  reason 
and  correction,  they  are  supplemented  by  positive  law  or 
are  displaced  by  it. 

§  6.  Customs  arising  spontaneously  from  the  feelings 
present  in  society  and  from  the  forces  by  which  those 
feelings  are  sustained  are  evidently  most  apt  at  the  very 
period  of  their  formation.  They  then  combine  and 
organize  men  according  to  existing  relations,  and  express 
the  most  feasible  terms  of  compromise.  Even  those 
who,  as  weaker  parties  to  oppressive  customs,  seem  to 
suffer  under  them,  nevertheless  find  more  or  less  protec- 
tion in  their  observance,  and  by  a  disposition  concessive 
to  a  servile  position  aid  in  their  maintenance.  Thus 
women  in  a  rude  household  may  still  owe  much  to  cus- 


I4  SOCIOLOGY. 

torn.  The  tyranny  the  weak  suffer  is  not  due  to  custom ; 
custom  softens  it  somewhat,  limits  it  somewhat,  and 
becomes  a  solace,  even  though  a  feeble  one,  in  bearing 
it.  Quick  concession  breaks  the  force  of  violence,  and 
one  standing  within  the  familiar  limits  of  concession 
neither  provokes  anger,  nor  gives  it  any  justification 
when  indulged.  Inevitable  intercourse  between  the 
strong  and  the  weak,  the  exacting  and  the  concessive, 
is  at  least  softened  and  made  bearable  by  custom.  It 
assuages  somewhat  the  tyrannical  temper,  and  forces  it 
down  to  an  average  expression. 

Customs  have  very  different  degrees  of  stringency  in 
different  stages  of  society.  They  may  be  quite  mild  and 
genial  in  relatively  barbarous  tribes,  prior  to  any  ex- 
tended military  or  civil  organization.  As  long  as  the 
union  is  one  of  blood-relationship,  natural  affections  and 
personal  interests,  the  customs  which  define  it  will  be 
relatively  direct,  simple  and  humane. 

As  soon  as  the  love  of  power  is  awakened,  and  the  mili- 
tary spirit,  which  is  its  earliest  and  strongest  expression, 
begins  to  prevail,  there  is  a  rapid  extension  of  govern- 
ment. Combining  power  is  the  secret  of  success  in  the 
new  direction  of  effort,  and  every  step,  both  as  regards 
the  completion  of  control  within  the  kingdom  and  the 
enlargement  of  the  kingdom  itself,  only  prepares  the 
way  for  another.  Customs,  now  lying  between  classes 
widely  separated  from  each  other,  between  conquerors 
and  the  conquered,  become  at  once  more  extended,  defi- 
nite, harsh  and  forceful.  In  this  military  period  power 
is  expressed  toward  men  and  through  men.  Things  are 
possessed  and  used  chiefly  by  the  government  of  persons. 
Authority  becomes  searching  and  exacting,  and  defines 
itself  in  minute  particulars.  Laws  which  have  to  do 
with  abstract  principles  are  few,  and  customs  which  have 


CUSTOM.  j^ 

to  do  with  concrete  facts  and  personal  relations  are 
many.  The  passions  of  men,  their  arrogance  and  their 
servility  find  instant  expression  in  customs.  Customs 
spring  up  spontaneously  in  the  realm  of  feeling;  laws 
arise  but  slowly  in  the  realm  of  reason.  Ceremonial  gov- 
ernment follows,  in  the  early  organization  of  the  state, 
the  lax  community  of  interests  which  precedes  it. 

As  the  military  impulse  gives  way  to  the  industrial 
one,  government  partakes  more  and  more  of  a  civil  char- 
acter, and  has  reference  to  the  interior  construction  of 
the  state  on  principles  of  justice ;  civil  customs  take  the 
place  of  social  ones,  and  laws,  as  in  the  later  Roman 
empire,  more  fully  define  the  dependence  of  citizens  on 
each  other.  Statute  law  supplements  customary  or  com- 
mon law,  and  there  is  a  steady  transfer  of  law  from  the 
region  of  personal  feeling  to  that  of  social  principles. 

§  7.  Customs  have  very  great  conservative  power. 
They  first  direct  and  sustain  social  life,  and  then  they  may 
so  hem  it  in  as  to  destroy  it,  or  to  call  for  a  moral  con- 
vulsion to  renew  it.  The  stream  cannot  leave  its  banks 
till  it  becomes  a  flood.  This  power  of  custom  is  due,  in 
the  first  instance,  to  the  increasing  force  which  it  gives 
to  the  feelings.  The  feelings,  shaping  customs,  are  in 
turn  shaped  by  them.  Thought  and  action,  the  active 
out-look  on  life,  accommodate  themselves  to  these  fixed 
terms ;  social  facts  arise  day  by  day  under  them,  and  so 
sustain  them  in  a  thousand  ways.  If  some  are  likely 
to  be  gainers  by  a  change  of  customs,  others  are  sure  to 
be  losers,  and  these,  being  in  possession,  carry  the  gen- 
eral voice.  If  each  man  may  win  something  by  a  pro- 
posed improvement,  he  is  liable  also  to  lose  something. 
The  loss  is  an  immediate  discomfort.  The  thing  to  be 
gained  is  but  slightly  impressed  on  the  imagination.  In 
such  a  discussion  as  that  of  the  suffrage  of  women,  reason 


T5  SOCIOLOGY. 

exhausts  its  power  without  being  able  to  overcome  the 
feelings  that  spring  up  afresh  from  the  immediate,  famil- 
iar facts  of  life.  These,  like  weeds  in  an  ill-kept  garden, 
have  a  pre-emptive  right  to  the  soil.  Strangely  enough, 
the  enslaving;  sentiment  has  much  the  same  hold  on  the 

o 

minds  of  those  who  suffer  from  it  as  on  the  minds  of 
those  who  owe  their  power  to  it.  There  is  a  strong  sen- 
timent of  concession  and  conciliation  passing  the  terms 
of  reason  on  the  part  of  inferiors  toward  those  over  them. 
Soldiers  will  quell  insubordination  in  the  blood  of  their 
fellows. 

The  immediate  results  of  a  change  of  customs  are  also 
more  or  less  out  of  sorts  with  the  relations  about  them. 
The  real  benefit  of  the  change  lies  in  the  introduction  of 
a  new  and  better  term,  which  will  ultimately  readjust 
all  other  terms  to  itself.  Till  this  readjustment  is  ac- 
complished, men  are  more  aware  of  the  present  collis- 
ion than  of  the  promised  harmony.  Thus  in  so  simple 
a  question  as  that  of  co-education,  deep-seated  prejudices 
are  easily  maintained  in  a  community  not  familiar  with 
it,  and  that  in  spite  of  its  uniform  success  with  those 
who  have  tried  it.  A  serious  change  in  customs  demands 
a  penetrative,  constructive  imagination  that  gives  ready 
admission  to  all  the  readjustments  of  a  higher  harmony. 

Customs  also  offer  to  each  man  calculable  lines  of 
action,  familiar  conditions  of  success.  Fluctuation  here 
disturbs  everything  and  may  make  industry  and  enter- 
prise nugatory.  This  is  especially  felt  in  civil  customs, 
in  common  law.  The  court  is  slow  to  enter  on  any  line 
of  correction.  It  is  timid  in  the  presence  of  "vested 
interests  " ;  it  is  reluctant  to  contradict  itself.  It  feels 
that  it  is  its  office  rather  to  watch  over  familiar  methods 
than  to  make  new  ones ;  to  lay  emphasis  on  what  is 
rather  than  on  what  should  be. 


CUSTOM.  Iy 

The  impression  thus  comes  to  be  planted  in  the  legal 
mind  that  the  real  root  of  right  and  of  law  is  custom 
quite  as  much  as  reason.  That  what  has  been  for  long, 
and  is  now  broadly,  has  the  right  to  be.  Nor  is  this  sen- 
timent altogether  false ;  quite  the  reverse.  The  semi- 
conscious, coherent  reason  which  stands  represented  in 
custom,  and  has  approved  itself  through  many  years  of 
practice,  ought  to  go  for  much  when  opposed  to  the 
fluctuating  opinion  which  is  offered  as  the  immediate 
product  of  pure  reason.  It  is  a  conviction  of  this  order 
that  makes  a  statesman  like  Burke. 

Yet  the  root  of  right  is  reason,  the  slow-creeping  rea- 
son of  the  aggregate  mind.  Customs  which  are  con- 
gealed errors  must  yield  to  the  clear,  coherent  push  of 
reason  proper.  Every  question  must  at  length  be 
brought  into  this  light,  and  there  be  answered.  It  is 
well,  indeed,  that  social  construction  should  not  be  sub- 
mitted to  this  decision  till  daylight  is  really  with  us. 

Custom  may  allow  one  by  entail  to  follow  and  control 
his  property  for  a  thousand  years ;  but  reason  will 
assert,  and  its  assertion  will  at  length  be  heeded,  that 
the  dead  yield  the  earth  to  the  living.  Each  man's 
interest  in  it  is  a  life-interest ,  and  all  beyond  this  must 
have  strict  reference  to  the  public  weal. 

Custom  is  also  helped  immeasurably  by  simple  inertia. 
Moral  gravitation  and  social  sluggishness  stand  for  pro- 
digious forces.  The  ignorance  and  indolence  and  selfish- 
ness of  men  lie  entrenched  in  customs  as  in  rifle-pits, 
and  make  an  assault  a  difficult  and  dangerous  undertak- 
ing. It  thus  sometimes  happens  that  after  the  floods  of 
many  years  have  expended  themselves  in  sweeping  away 
some  obnoxious  custom,  isolated  sentiments  or  facts  will 
still  remain  as  reminders  of  it — as  "  survivals."  A  soli- 
tary table-rock  on  the  plain  tells  how  thick  and  broad 


!g  SOCIOLOGY. 

was  the  stratum  to  which  it  once  belonged.  English  lan- 
guage and  English  feeling  have  such  a  survival.  There 
are  at  least  twenty-five  words  and  phrases  in  our  speech 
which  express  opprobriously  impurity  in  women,  and  not 
one  to  cover  simply  the  same  fact  in  men.  These  words 
of  wounding  and  death  cover  the  field,  as  stones  stained 
with  blood  strewed  the  ground  where  the  Jews  of  old 
stoned  their  victims,  and  purged  their  own  consciences. 

The  feeling  which  puts  domestic  servants  on  a  dif- 
ferent footing  from  other  forms  of  labor  is  a  survival  of 
slavery.  To  offer  a  house-servant  higher  wages  is  felt  to 
be  a  personal  injury  to  the  employer,  a  meddling  with 
one's  rights.  To  offer  a  workman  in  the  arts  higher  pay 
is  common,  and  an  increase  of  salary  as  a  means  of  secur- 
ing better  professional  service  is  constant.  Herein  the 
interest  of  the  servant  girl  is  overlooked  in  behalf  of  those 
of  the  mistress. 

§  8.  The  conservative  force  of  the  different  forms  of 
custom  is  quite  diverse,  and  turns  on  the  ratio  of  feel- 
ing to  reason  in  their  formation.  Social  customs  are 
especially  difficult  of  modification,  springing  as  they  do 
so  exclusively  from  feeling,  and  giving  such  constant 
play  to  it.  The  just  and  the  unjust  sentiment,  the 
kindly  and  the  unkindly  feeling,  are  strangely  blended  in 
them,  and  harmonized  under  a  ruling  idea..  Such  an 
institution  as  slavery  qualifies  all  human  affections,  fit- 
ting them  to  its  own  bad  facts.  The  most  gracious  as 
well  as  the  least  gracious  feelings  are  made  to  plead  for 
it,  and  it  is  planted  in  the  domestic  affections  and  inter- 
woven with  them.  Unfitting  and  burdensome  funeral 
ceremonies  afford  a  good  example  in  secondary  things  of 
the  persistency  of  social  customs.  These  exacting  and 
distasteful  forms  are  felt  to  be  obligatory,  and  are 
removed,  by  the  emotional  state  to  which  they  pertain, 


CUSTOM.  I9 

beyond  the  domain  of  common  sense.  Woman,  by  her 
large  emotional  nature,  becomes  the  priestess  of  social 
ways  and  ceremonies  in  their  trivial,  oppressive  and 
divisive  character.  This  work  she  undertakes  the  more 
heartily,  and  performs  the  more  thoroughly,  from  the 
simple  fact  that  higher  and  more  just  lines  of  influence 
are  closed  to  her.  The  tree  whose  leading  branches 
are  lopped  becomes  a  thicket  of  sprouts. 

While  there  are  a  variety  of  reasons  which  prevent  the 
mass  of  women  from  seeking  enlarged  political  rights, 
prominent  among  them  is  the  force  of  custom  over  their 
minds,  and  the  feeling  that  any  material  change  would 
be  attended  by  the  reduction  of  familiar  and  agreeable 
power.  Such  a  reduction,  indeed,  would  be  sure  to  fol- 
low. Petty  social  tyrannies  would  be  effectively  broken 
by  the  enlarged  methods  of  more  direct  and  rational 
influence. 

Religious  customs  are  scarcely  less  stubborn  than 
social  ones.  The  religious  circle  of  ideas  in  any  given 
faith  is  a  closed  circle,  and  these  ideas  are  fitted  to  act 
and  are  made  to  act  strongly  on  the  feelings.  Rites  and 
observances  are  shaped  to  this  very  end.  Not  only  is 
the  circle  of  doctrines  a  closed  one ;  that  of  believers  is 
also  closed.  They  stand  in  almost  exclusive  religious 
connection  with  each  other,  and  make  it  their  first  duty 
to  intensify  in  action  and  reaction  the  religious  senti- 
ment. These  customs  also  are  entrusted  to  an  interested 
priesthood  or  a  zealous  ministry,  who  add  a  strong  pro- 
fessional bias  to  the  predilections  of  faith.  If  under 
these  circumstances  even  the  non-essentials  of  form  are 
altered,  explosion  and  bitterness  follow.  A  surplice  may 
be  fought  for  or  fought  against  like  the  banner  of  a  regi- 
ment. 

Civil  customs  are  less  rigid  principally  because  they 


2O 


SOCIOLOGY. 


are  brought  into  constant  contact  with  urgent  and 
changeable  practical  interests.  They  are  put  to  the 
severe  test  of  experience  amid  the  stern  pressure  of  per- 
sonal concerns.  Yet  even  here  professional  sentiment 
espouses  the  past  and  makes  the  admission  of  a  new  and 
better  method  a  very  slow  and  laborious  process.  Not 
till  a  procedure  is  absurdly  inapplicable  is  it  replaced  by  a 
method  fitted  to  the  work  in  hand.  The  senate  of  the 
United  States  preserves  the  forms  of  law  on  March  4, 
by  setting  back  the  clock  when  the  session  has  passed 
its  legal  limit.  This  most  wise  and  grave  body  evidently 
thinks  that  the  law  is  a  foolish  jade  to  be  driven  with 
winkers. 

§  9.  From  this  stubbornly  conservative  character  of 
custom  it  arises  that  the  organic  form  of  society  is  so 
constantly  out  of  sorts  with  the  life-forces  it  protects, 
and  thus  comes  to  oppress  the  very  energies  it  should 
develop.  Growth  may  be  entirely  arrested  by  inflexible 
customs,  and  so  society  becomes  immobile  or  falls  into 
decay,  according  to  the  energy  of  the  agents  at  work. 

No  more  complete  tyranny,  reaching  into  all  the  rela- 
tions of  life,  and  giving  well  nigh  inflexible  conditions  of 
action  to  every  class  and  every  individual,  could  be  de- 
vised than  that  which  arose  in  India  in  the  form  of  civil 
and  religious  castes  under  a  conquering  race.  Law  was 
immeasurably  extended  by  custom,  and  in  the  distinctions 
of  castes  and  in  the  subdivisions  of  castes,  social,  relig 
ious  and  civil  customs  grew  year  by  year,  till  no  remnant 
of  personal  liberty  was  able  to  hide  itself  from  them. 
Every  joint  was  ossified,  and  society  became  as  stiff  as  a 
statue.  India,  China,  Japan  have  stood  for  the  maximum 
possibilities  of  tyranny  in  society,  a  tyranny  hardly  to 
be  broken  except  by  external  force.  Religion  with  its 


CUSTOM.  2l 

solemn  and  ceremonial  forms  and  its  inflexible  ideas 
becomes  a  supreme  agent  in  this  vital  arrest. 

The  military  organization  of  the  feudal  period,  with  its 
sharp  divisions,  multiplied  dependencies  and  exacting 
authority,  giving  rise  to  a  long  history  of  bitter  wrong, 
is  an  example  nearer  at  hand  of  the  combined  force  of 
custom  and  law  in  enslaving  society. 

A  separation  between  custom  and  law,  a  reduction  of 
authority  on  that  side  and  an  increase  on  this  side,  is  one 
of  the  first  results  of  reason,  and  leads  directly  to  the 
growth  of  liberty.  The  most  absolute  ruler  has  some 
restraint  put  upon  him  by  social  and  religious  customs. 
This  control  is  later  much  increased  by  civil  customs,  and 
an  absolute  monarchy  passes  into  a  constitutional  one. 
This  restraint  of  power  will  often  demand  the  substitu- 
tion of  law  for  custom.  The  custom  can  only  be  deci- 
sively abrogated  by  law,  and  law  is  less  dependent  in 
interpretation  on  the  personal  temper  of  those  who  act 
under  it.  Law  will  be  used  as  a  means  of  abrogating 
customs,  of  limiting  them  and  of  putting  them  more 
completely  on  the  basis  of  the  public  weal.  When  this 
movement  completes  itself  in  any  rapid  change,  a  written 
constitution  is  very  likely  to  be  substituted  for  one  of 
precedents.  The  fitness  of  codifying  common  law  is  even 
now  under  consideration.  A  challenging  of  customs  is 
an  act  of  reason,  and  in  civil  relations  a  preparation  for 
statute  law.  Custom  gives  way  to  this  more  just  and 
thoughtful  form  of  government.  When  the  mind  is  pre- 
pared for  an  abstract  discussion  and  a  general  principle 
it  is  ready  to  embody  the  result  in  a  law. 

When  the  principal  defences  of  justice  have  been  intel- 
ligently set  up  in  law,  superseding  and  supplementing 
custom,  there  are  room  and  occasion  within  these  limits 
for  the  formation  of  public  opinion,  combining  reason  and 


22 


SOCIOLOGY. 


feeling  in  a  wholesome,  pervasive,  flexible  sentiment. 
In  the  growth  of  society,  customs,  and  especially  civil 
customs,  pass  into  laws  and  into  public  opinion.  The 
word  opinion  implies  the  presence  of  an  easy  and  ever 
renewed  consideration  of  methods — certain  well  recog- 
nized ideas  for  the  guidance  of  conduct.  Methods  are  no 
longer  blind  and  immobile,  the  present  ceases  to  be  a 
repetition  of  the  past.  New  conditions  give  new  terms 
to  thought.  The  word  public  implies  that  this  reflec- 
tive, thoughtful  movement  pervades  the  community. 
The  community  shapes  and  re-shapes  its  action  to  suit 
the  exigencies  which  it  is  encountering.  It  is  no  longer 
the  bitter  hereditary  feeling  of  class  toward  class  that 
assigns  the  rights  and  duties  of  men,  but  a  more  or  less 
complete  judgment  of  the  general  well-being.  Reason 
and  right  find  constant  entrance  into  the  common  mind. 

Public  opinion  is  far  less  searching  and  absolute  than 
the  customs  which  it  displaces.  It  is  not  an  inner  gar- 
ment whose  friction  or  whose  poison  you  cannot  escape, 
but  an  outer  garment  which  you  can  wrap  about  you  in 
one  way  or  in  another,  or  leave  off  altogether.  Like 
wind  in  the  air  it  helps  to  purify  it,  and  is  only  rarely 
tempestuous.  Public  opinion  becomes  each  year  more 
soft  and  genial,  a  more  fitting  expression  of  the  moral 
energy  of  an  intelligent  and  free  people.  It  corrects 
itself  in  its  extremes  by  its  own  action. 

Public  opinion  is  sometimes  complained  of  as  subject- 
ing all  men  to  one  set  of  influences,  putting  upon  them 
one  stamp.  The  accusation  is  ill  taken.  Public  opinion, 
as  contrasted  with  custom,  produces  an  inexhaustible 
variety  with  slight  differences,  as  compared  with  a  few, 
strong,  deep,  ineradicable  divisions.  Colors  are  blended 
as  in  nature,  and  not  opposed  in  sharp  outline  as  in 
prints.  Public  opinion  is  a  living  sarcode,  out  of  which 


CUSTOM.  2  * 

all  special  organizations  in  the  community  readily  arise, 
and  to  which  they  as  readily  return. 

Law  stands  in  close  relation  to  public  opinion,  and 
supplies  the  needed  strength  by  which  the  transition  is 
made  from  blind  customs  to  general  judgment.  Law 
holds  the  community  fast,  while  public  opinion  is  in  the 
process  of  formation.  Law  accelerates  the  formation  of 
public  opinion,  and  extends  and  executes  its  incipient 
decrees.  Public  opinion,  in  its  growth,  subdues  the  rigor 
of  law,  and  slowly  displaces  it  .  or  rather  suspends  it,  by 
a  self-executing  sentiment.  It  is  the  supplement  Qf  law 
softening  its  severe  lines. 

§  10.  As  public  opinion  becomes  just  and  pervasive,,  it 
forms  the  freest  and  the  most  complete  government. 
Those  who  are  subject  to  it  in  a  large  measure  share  its 
reasons,  and  its  restraints  are  not,  therefore,  burdensome 
to  them.  The  soundness  of  public  opinion  saves  liberty, 
and  its  universality  preserves  pleasure.  All  government, 
therefore,  advantageously  lapses  into  public  opinion, 
when  this  opinion  has  force  enough  to  discharge  its  office. 
Incipient  public  opinion  begets  law,  and  law  in  reaction 
enlarges  public  opinion,  till  the  law  has  no  farther  duty. 
Public  opinion — we  are  speaking  of  a  sound  and  progres- 
sive public  opinion,  as  all  public  opinion  tends  to  be  by 
its  own  action — first  seeks  the  support  of  law,  and  law, 
wisely  formed  and  enforced,  justifies,  extends  and  estab- 
lishes the  opinion  which  gave  rise  to  it. 

In  the  growth  of  social  order  in  a  free  state  the  ques- 
tion often  becomes  urgent,  What  is  to  be  entrusted  to 
public  opinion,  and  what  may  rightly  demand  the  aid  of 
law?  When  there  is  sufficient  public  opinion  to  lay  firm 
hold  of  the  weapon  of  law  within  the  proper  field  of  law, 
law  may  wisely  be  used  for  the  more  rapid  and  complete 
formation  of  opinion.  There  is  always  liable  to  be  in 


24  SOCIOLOGY. 

some  stage  of  progress  a  fraction  of  the  people  whose 
interests,  appetites  and  passions  are  too  strong  for  the 
government  of  pure  reason,  even  when  that  reason  is 
enforced  by  a  majority  of  the  people.  Public  opinion 
cannot  push  itself  by  its  own  unaided  force  into  com- 
plete possession  of  its  own  field  when  thus  encountered 
by  gross  feelings  and  vicious  purposes.  But  it  is  the 
right"of  the  better  opinion,  if  it  touches  civil  organization 
and  social  safety,  to  prevail,  and  to  prevail  by  means  of 
those  laws  which  give  common  terms  of  construction. 
Any  other  doctrine  concedes  more  rights  to  vice  than  to 
virtue.  The  mere  fact  that  the  wrong  has  the  field  is 
immaterial  in  the  discussion.  It  is  an  accidental  incident 
of  progress.  Vicious  methods  have  quite  sufficient 
advantage  in  preoccupation  without  conceding  to  them 
any  rights  in  ethics.  How  shall  society  be  organized  ? 
is  the  essential  inquiry,  and  one  that  must  be  answered 
in  reference  to  the  general  well-being,  whether  the 
method  under  discussion  is  positive  or  negative,  already 
in  existence  or  waiting  to  be  established.  The  same 
persons  who  assert  that  the  Sabbath  shall  not  be  pro- 
tected by  law  though  its  safeguards  have  long  been  set 
up,  are  often  ready  to  assert  that  the  sale  of  intoxicating 
drinks  must  be  allowed,  as  a  right  of  which  men  are 
already  possessed.  In  neither  case  is  a  great  social  ques- 
tion to  be  settled  by  the  form  of  a  proposition,  but  by 
the  interests  involved.  Rights,  natural  and  conferred, 
are  to  be  constantly  redefined  in  reference  to  the  public 
weal,  and  no  man  can  set  himself  up  against  a  social  right 
so  defined. 

§  II.  When  public  opinion  is  ready  to  take  the  place 
of  law,  law  expires  by  limitation.  That  the  intellectual 
and  moral  life  of  the  community  is  destined  to  extin- 
guish all  other  forms  of  authority  is  obvious,  both  from 


CUSTOM.  25 

the  reasonableness  of  the  thing,  and  from  the  fact  that 
this  is  the  constant  result,  so  far  as  public  opinion  is 
purified  and  made  to  express  the  best  thoughts  of  the 
best  men.  The  vis  viva  of  the  social  body  is  thus  a 
pervasive,  moral  presence.  What  goes  forth  in  the 
beginning  as  blind  custom  returns  in  the  end  as  reason 
and  good-will. 

Public  opinion  arises  from  the  penetrating  power  of 
the  most  rational  and  just  minds  in  their  contact  with 
the  masses  of  men.  Most  men  must  derive  their  incen- 
tives to  action,  not  so  much  from  their  own  opinions  pri- 
marily as  from  those  unformulated  principles  which  un- 
derlie the  action  of  the  community,  and  which  find 
changeable  expression  in  many  ways.  We  cannot  easily 
attach  too  much  value  to  the  aggregate  of  knowledge, 
conviction  and  feeling  which  constitutes  the  moral  power 
of  the  community.  All  bright  minds,  all  men  of  deep, 
spiritual  insight,  all  men  with  a  mastery  of  practical  con- 
ditions, are  in  daily  contribution  to  it.  As  only  a  small 
portion  of  the  conduct  of  the  most  rational  man  is  at  any 
one  moment  governed  by  reason,  then  and  there  active ; 
as  physical  constitution,  habit,  the  judgments  of  the  past 
which  lie  latent  in  present  impressions  control  most  of 
his  action,  so  in  the  community,  the  dull,  sluggish  and 
conventional  mind  is  largely  directed  by  the  principles 
and  methods  made  current  through  the  rational  inquiry 
and  conduct  of  a  few.  Most  men  serve  only  to  give  mass 
and  volume  to  a  movement  in  whose  formation  they 
have  taken  but  a  secondary  part.  They  are  the  body 
through  which  the  moral  life  penetrates  by  sympathetic, 
spiritual  filtration.  To  make  the  process  a  truly  just  one, 
there  must  be  sufficient  freedom  to  allow  the  uninter- 
rupted movement  of  ideas,  and  sufficient  general  intelli- 
gence to  admit  of  their  reception  everywhere.  Then 


26  SOCIOLOGY. 

habit,  conventional  sentiment,  familiar  faith,  are  only 
other  forms  of  thought.  Public  opinion  is  thus  a  per- 
vasive, spiritual  potentiality,  everywhere  touching  the 
actual ;  a  potentiality  of  pure  reason  and  sound  sentiment 
to  which  all  lines  of  wise  thought  are  leading,  and  from 
which  all  large,  free  life  is  springing. 

§  12.  This  ever  present  conflict  between  custom  and 
reason,  between  the  past  and  the  present,  between  the 
method  outworn  and  the  one  just  winning  its  way,  be- 
tween the  destruction  and  the  reconstruction  which  be- 
long to  all  higher  forms  of  life,  contains  the  secret  of 
statesmanship  and  of  reform.  There  can  be  no  sound 
and  safe  statesmanship  without  a  profound  reverence  for 
the  past,  without  a  feeling  of  awe  in  view  of  the  order 
already  achieved,  and  fear  and  hesitancy  in  touching 
forces  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  too  blind  to  be  modified, 
and  so  easily  lapsing  into  confusion  when  baffled  in  their 
first  intent.  Veneration  for  constitutional  law  as  ex- 
pressed in  custom  is  the  predominant  sentiment  of  con- 
servative, political  wisdom. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  can  be  no  reform,  no  prog- 
ress, no  radical  movement  without  a  decisive  disposition 
to  consider,  criticise  and  correct  custom,  a  disposition  to 
cast  the  future  in  a  better  mould  than  that  of  the  present. 
This  is  the  moral  temper  to  which  the  world  owes  so 
much,  yet  which  it  is  so  slow  to  understand. 

Clear,  spiritual  vision  finds  no  obstruction  in  custom. 
It  searches  out  customs,  and  freely  criticises  them.  It 
remembers  that  forgetfulness,  error  and  abuse  ;  that  prej- 
udice, oppression  and  hatred,  are  hidden  in  custom.  Jus- 
tice, reason  and  sympathy  in  the  ordinary  mind  stop 
short  with  the  limits  of  clique,  class  and  race.  To  break 
down  these  barriers  of  spiritual  life  is  a  large  part  of  the 
labor  of  every  good  man.  True  reform  is  giving  free, 


CUSTOM.  2- 

safe  movement  to  just  ideas.  The  actual  orbit  of  society 
is  defined  by  these  two  conservative  and  radical  forces, 
and  society  moves  in  it  with  undue  delay  or  with  dan- 
gerous rapidity  as  the  one  or  the  other  prevails. 

Reform  must  work  under  custom,  and  in  custom,  and 
for  custom ;  and  statesmanship  must  be  content  with  de- 
laying change  sufficiently  to  give  the  new  method  time 
to  win  its  own  strength.  There  must  be  more  or  less 
of  collision  and  coercion  in  social  reform,  for  not  till  the 
new  is  able  to  displace  the  old  will  it  be  able  to  replace 
it.  The  rational  world  does  not  move  with  the  silent 
transfer  and  quiet  precision  of  the  organic  world. 

The  later,  freer,  more  fortunate  forms  of  social  growth 
are  those  which  take  place  by  means  of  public  opinion. 
The  secret  of  safety  in  social  progress  lies  in  having  suffi- 
cient reverence  for  the  past,  and  sufficient  hold  on  sober 
reason,  to  retain  the  gains  of  movement,  while  admitting 
movement  itself. 

Rigid  customs,  customs  that  have  ceased  to  obey  the 
organic  force,  are  preparing  the  way  for  violence  and 
rapid  change.  When  a  nation,  like  the  French  at  the  era 
of  the  Revolution,  begins  to  overthrow  a  tyranny  that 
has  extended  into  all  social  relations,  the  destruction  is 
sweeping  and  terribly  retributive.  When  a  country,  like 
Japan,  breaks  with  the  past,  it  has  everything  to  alter. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  nations  are  rapidly  passing  from  the 
semi-fluidity  of  concessive  customs  to  the  complete  fluid- 
ity of  public  opinion.  The  utmost  reasonableness  in  the 
public  mind  can  alone  make  this  movement  safe. 


CHAPTER  II. 

GOVERNMENT. 

§  I.  THE  pre-eminent  field  of  human  life  is  social  activ- 
ity. All  forms  of  power  find  their  best  expression  in  this 
activity,  and  are  in  turn  best  nourished  by  it.  Secluded, 
individual  life  is  impossible,  and  any  movement  toward 
it  is  barbarism.  Each  life  stands  in  connection  with  all 
lives,  and  must  work  out  any  large  ends  in  fellowship  with 
them.  Largeness  of  end  is  chiefly  this  very  spiritual  ex- 
tension. Hence  all  incentives  and  all  interests  take  part 
in  the  formation  of  society, — and  of  civil  government, 
which  is  its  rough  framework.  Physical  appetites  and 
physical  dependencies,  natural  affections  and  social  in- 
stincts, immediate  safety  and  comfort,  the  love  of  power 
and  of  wealth  and  of  knowledge,  spiritual  motives  and 
spiritual  affections,  all  unite  in  combining  men  in  social 
and  civil  relations.  Every  pushing,  productive  force  in 
the  individual  must  enter  at  once  on  some  definite  terms 
of  construction  with  other  incentives  about  it.  This 
movement  is  the  weakest  at  the  outset,  and  may  easily 
be  checked  when  the  simplest  physical  appetites  and 
the  earliest  social  instincts  are  satisfied.  Barren  soil,  se- 
cluded position,  the  fears  of  more  powerful  tribes,  the 
simple  incitements  of  a  weak  temperament,  may  leave  a 
tribe  for  a  long  time  under  a  social  organization  which 
goes  not  very  far  "beyond  the  herding  of  animal  life.  On 
this  narrow  basis  there  may  be  developed  amiable  affec- 
tions not  yet  subjected  to  the  strain  of  a  nature  awak- 

28 


GOVERNMENT.  2O 

ened  and  inflamed  by  a  broad  sweep  of  powers.  Of  this 
character  are  the  virtues  of  some  small  and  secluded  com- 
munities. 

But  when  men  are  aroused,  when  individual  strength 
and  tribal  strength  become  aggressive,  that  long  push 
toward  power  commences.  The  ambitious  spirit  begins 
to  feed  its  own  fires  ;  the  weak  motives  of  animal  life,  the 
gentle  ties  of  a  feeble  disposition,  are  brushed  aside,  and 
men  enter  on  a  march  toward  the  extended  rule  and  the 
multiplied  resources  which  are  incident  to  social  combi- 
nation. The  organizing  tendency  breaks  new  and  higher 
ground,  and  struggles  after  conditions  more  consonant 
with  its  own  strength.  This  change  must  at  some  time 
come,  because  there  are  in  men  powers  which  find  their 
full  play  in  this  activity,  because  all  rational  life  demands 
this  enlargement,  and  because  the  world  gives  it  suitable 
conditions. 

As  soon  as  rational  life  in  its  social  development  meets 
a  boundary  it  beats  against  it,  and  struggles  to  win  for 
itself  new  expansion.  The  complete  organization  of  all 
human  life  is  the  inner  necessity  of  every  human  life  ; 
and  so  there  arises,  in  one  way  or  another,  in  one  place 
or  another,  at  one  time  or  another,  movement  toward 
this  object.  There  is  an  absence  of  perfect  spiritual 
equilibrium  ;  there  are  unsatisfied  impulses,  till  all  rational 
life  is  made  everywhere  to  minister  to  rational  life. 

The  first  rude  push  in  this  direction  is  the  ambition  of 
the  ambitious,  the  assertion  of  strength  where  strength 
lies  ;  and  so  men  enter  on  the  career  of  conquest,  of  large 
national  life,  and  the  establishment  of  common  social 
conditions  over  an  extended  territory.  Human  thought 
and  human  interest  are  correspondingly  enlarged,  and 
life  wins  new  dignity  from  simple  magnitude.  Military 
power,  power  over  persons,  stands  for  greatness,  and  men, 


30  SOCIOLOGY. 

individually  and  collectively,  are  stirred  and  controlled  by 
this  impulse.  While  a  few  men,  by  virtue  of  superior 
gifts,  feel  strongly  and  respond  intensely  to  this  incentive, 
the  great  mass  of  men  share  it  in  a  secondary  form,  yield 
themselves  readily  to  its  guidance,  appropriate  sympa- 
thetically the  part  which  falls  to  them  in  companionship, 
and  identify  themselves  with  the  leader,  the  army  or  the 
nation  with  which  they  are  associated. 

This  movement  toward  a  rude  form  of  power  is  the 
first  great  organic  effort.  It  gives  the  world  to  those 
who  can  best  unite  it  and  hold  it.  It  springs  from  organ- 
ization, extends  organization,  and  furnishes  fresh  motives 
to  organization,  both  within  and  without  the  nation.  It 
gives  rise  to  the  military  era,  and  is  the  first  great  fact  in 
social  development.  Many  and  bitter  as  are  the  evils 
which  accompany  war,  rudely  as  earlier  organic  ties  are 
broken  down  by  it,  and  cruelly  as  men  are  trodden  under 
foot  in  its  marches,  it  still  comes  in  behalf  of  fuller,  larger 
life  and  a  grander  sweep  of  human  interests.  Only  so 
can  the  race  as  a  race  possess  the  earth  and  replenish  it 
with  spiritual  life. 

§  2.  While  power  at  the  outset  tends  strongly  to  con- 
centration, while  its  direct  acquisition  is  the  primary  pur- 
pose of  the  few,  there  is  also  a  counter-tendency  in  -this 
search  for  'power  toward  diffusion.  He  who  helps  to 
confer  it  must  in  a  measure  share  it ;  companions  in 
arms  cannot  be  simply  servants.  Those  who  have  no 
power  can  yield  no  power  to  a  superior.  A  taxation 
that  is  extreme  baffles  itself.  The  organization  which 
strengthens  the  ruler,  strengthens  those  who  administer 
rule,  and  strengthens  the  nation.  The  victorious  army, 
rank  and  file,  shares  the  sense  of  power,  and  in  many  ways 
the  power  itself,  which  accrue  to  victory.  The  ruler  and 
the  leader  who  can  best  combine  men — that  is,  best  call 


GO  VERNMENT.  ~  r 

out  and  unite  their  individual  impulses  and  powers  in 
one  pursuit — will  be  most  successful.  He  who  struggles 
against  this  out-flow  of  power  from  himself,  will  soon 
find  that  he  has  cut  off  the  in-flow  of  power  to  him- 
self. A  diffusion  of  power  must  begin  to  follow  at  once 
on  a  concentration  of  power,  or  power  will  perish  from 
the  want  of  sufficient  nourishment.  The  Roman  Empire 
became  so  great  because  it  understood  this  principle,  and 
freely  conferred  strength  as  well  as  freely  exacted  it. 
Power  must  divide  and  subdivide  itself  in  a  thousand 
organs  as  its  own  condition  of  life. 

This  fact  is  still  more  marked  in  connection  with  that 
industrial  development  which  grows  out  of  military  de- 
velopment, puts  limits  to  it,  and  slowly  absorbs  it.  Di- 
versified industries  always  create  a  large  demand  for 
liberty.  These  industries  imply  much  intellectual  activ- 
ity, an  activity  that  prepares  the  way  for.  independence 
and  requires  independence.  Few  persons  are  to-day  as 
little  under  the  dictation  and  restraint  of  others  as  those 
who  organize  business  and  push  forward  special  indus- 
tries. This  field  is  their  own,  and  they  willingly  suffer, 
and  can  suffer,  very  little  interference  in  it.  Their  posi- 
tion is  much  more  free  than  that  of  the  professional  man 
or  of  the  public  man.  The  pursuit  of  wealth  demands 
this  freedom  to  be  successful,  and  when  successful  it 
gives  the  means  of  enjoying  it  and  enlarging  it.  The 
inborn  freedom  of  prosperous  industry,  though  severely 
broken  in  on  in  periods  of  violence,  is  irresistible  in  the 
end,  for  the  simple  reason  that  those  diversified  products, 
that  extension  of  enjoyments,  which  are  the  insignia  of 
power,  can  be  secured  in  no  other  way.  If  the  kingdom 
that  is  powerful  is  to  be  rich  also, — and  the  two  things 
finally  become  inseparable — it  must  concede  to  produc- 
tion and  to  commerce  the  safety  and  freedom  which 


32  SOCIOLOGY. 

are  indispensable  to  them.  All  industrial  centres  have 
been  centres  of  liberty,  and  from  the  nature  of  the  case 
must  be. 

While  the  primary  agents  in  production  must  neces- 
sarily seek  safety,  and  secure  liberty  in  the  use  of  that 
safety,  the  natural  tendency  is,  though  the  movement  is 
weaker  than  this  primary  one,  for  freedom  to  extend  it- 
self to  all  the  secondary  agents  of  industry  as  well.  In- 
telligence, activity,  efficiency,  can  be  secured  on  no  other 
terms,  and  varied,  prosperous  production  demands  these 
qualities  in  all  departments.  The  moment  production  is 
constructed  within  itself  on  terms  of  tyranny,  as  in  the 
use  of  slaves,  it  tends  to  become  gross  in  its  products 
and  narrow  in  its  returns.  We  not  only  have  plantation 
methods,  we  have  plantation  produce.  At  whatever 
point  labor  becomes  refined,  it  tends  to  become,  and 
must  ultimately  become,  free.  This  movement  does  not 
complete  itself  at  once  and  suddenly,  but  it  stands  for  an 
innate  force.  Thus  large  industrial  cities  owe  their  re- 
finement and  their  freedom  to  the  same  causes.  The 
widening  of  industry  means  the  widening  of  power,  and 
this  is  liberty.  Industry  cannot  be  freely  diversified  and 
fully  productive  ,on  any  other  terms.  Those  who  propose 
to  enjoy  wealth  must  concede  these  conditions.  Some 
things  may  serve  to  disguise  this  relation.  Slavery  may 
co-exist  with  cultivation,  because  it  may  draw  its  luxu- 
ries from  a  territory  free'r  than  its  own.  Manufacturing 
cities  may  show  hardship  and  depression,  because  of  too 
narrow  and  too  mechanical  a  pursuit.  Yet  progress  in 
the  industrial  terms  of  civilization  means  liberty  some- 
where, means  at  least  a  few  free  centres  of  creation  and 
diffusion. 

§  3.  Later   organic   movements — later    than    the   first 
instinctive,  appetitive   and  passionate    union   of  men    in 


GOVERNMENT.  33 

society — are  occasioned  by  the  love  of  power,  power 
being  used  as  a  very  comprehensive  expression.  This 
desire  for  power  is  incident  to  the  possession  of  various 
powers,  physical  and  intellectual,  craving  the  conditions 
of  activity.  It  is  soon  found  that  these  powers  are  essen- 
tially social ;  that  is,  they  cannot  reach  their  ends  except 
through  a  social  medium.  This  medium  must  be  en- 
larged, pari passu,  with  the  exercise  of  the  powers.  In 
this  process  of  enlargement  innumerable  other  powers  are 
called  out  in  innumerable  other  persons,  and  the  exten- 
sion of  one  man's  powers  becomes  the  extension  of  the 
powers  of  many  men. 

The  proper  definition  of  personal  liberty  is  the  un- 
constrained use  of  powers.  Liberty  has  no  significance 
in  reference  to  that  which  we  cannot  do.  Liberty  to» 
walk  means  something,  has  a  practical  value ;  liberty  te> 
fly  means  nothing,  has  no  practical  value.  The  move- 
ment onward  is  some  increase  in  the  powers  of  action, 
and  so  involves  liberty.  And  this  increase,  because  of 
the  social  nature  of  man,  stands  also  for  the  enlargement 
of  the  powers  of  men  other  than  those  first  concerned. 
When  the  secondary  movement  is  checked,  the  primary 
one  is  also  arrested.  This  is  plain  in  the  increase  of 
those  gross  forces  which  make  up  military  strength.  It 
is  more  distinctly  true  of  those  pervasive  and  subtile 
powers  which  lead  to  the  accumulation  of  wealth.  It 
is  most  profoundly  true  of  that  activity  of  thought  and 
of  those  higher  affections  which  constitute  spiritual  life. 

Beneficent  liberty— liberty  which  belongs  to  society 
and  the  state,  and  is  not  a  private  gain  simply— means 
the  accumulation  of  harmonized  powers  at  many  points, 
and  is  in  proportion  to  this  aggregate  of  powers.  These 
points  are  the  centres  of  individual  and  collective  action 
among  men.  That  community  is  the  freest  in  which  the 
3 


34  SOCIOLOGY. 

sum  of  individual  and  of  collective  powers  is  the  greatest. 
The  power,  be  it  individual  or  be  it  collective,  which 
tends  to  this  result  is  beneficent ;  all  power,  the  exercise 
of  which  so  limits  the  expression  of  other  powers  as  to 
reduce  this  aggregate  result,  limits  liberty  at  once  in  the 
state,  and  must  ultimately  limit  it  in  the  person  or  in  the 
class  who  put  it  forth. 

This  relation  is  confused  in  men's  minds  simply  be- 
cause they  aim  directly  at  personal  power  rather  than  at 
social  power,  at  immediate  power  rather  than  at  the 
steady  increase  of  power,  and  at  physical  power  rather 
than  at  spiritual  power.  Superiority  is  what  they  ap- 
preciate and  desire,  not  power  to  be  used  comprehen- 
sively and  beneficently  Superiority  demands  inferiority, 
and  turns  on  the  existence  of  a  disparity  of  relations.  It 
is,  therefore,  in  opposition  to  general  liberty,  and  is  tyr 
anny  Beneficent  power  demands  the  steady  extension 
of  power  everywhere,  and  is  nourished  at  every  stage  by 
that  extension.  It  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  general 
power,  and  with  liberty. 

Every  movement  forward  in  society  means  simply  an 
increase  of  beneficent  power,  which  is  harmonized 
power.  And  harmony  in  the  development  of  power  is 
only  a  condition  of  its  continuous  and  universal  growth- 
belongs  to  its  very  nature  in  its  wise  diffusion.  Power 
that  breaks  away  from  this  law  of  harmony  is  suicidal. 
The  extension  of  power  is  the  extension  of  liberty,  and 
slowly  issues  in  an  immense  accumulation  of  beneficent 
powers  for  each  and  for  all.  The  things  which  disguise 
this  fact  are,  first,  the  value  we  attach  to  the  gross  term, 
physical  force ;  and,  secondly,  the  fascination  which  a 
glaring  inequality  of  powers  has  for  us.  The  pugilist 
thinks  himself  a  stronger  man  than  the  philosopher,  and 
may  readily  pity  him.  The  well-to-do  citizen  fancies 


GO  VERNMENT.  . -  - 

that  the  barbaric  chieftain  has  far  more  power  than  he, 
and  so  far  may  envy  him.  He  forgets  that  it  is  the  im- 
mense accumulation  of  powers  about  him  that  hides  his 
own  power ;  that  by  means  of  these  he  can  touch  the 
ends  of  the  earth  and  be  touched  by  them ;  that  he  is 
quickened  by  a  nerve  fibre  that  encloses  the  intellectual 
universe,  and  that  he  can  in  turn  quicken  it.  When  the 
chieftain  wishes  to  show  his  strength,  his  instruments  are 
few  and  close  at  hand,  and  the  effect  is  scenic  only  be- 
cause of  the  unusual  form  of  the  play  and  the  narrow  stage 
on  which  it  is  rendered.  When  the  citizen  wishes  to 
manifest  his  power,  the  agencies  of  that  power  are  subtile 
and  remote,  and  of  immense  mass,  and  are  shared  by 
many  others.  The  effects  are  large,  but  are  made  trifling 
to  the  senses  by  the  extended  area  over  which  they 
operate.  To  kill  one  man  just  at  hand  seems  to 
the  fool  a  greater  feat  than  to  help  ten  men  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  earth. 

Social  liberty  is,  then,  the  possession  of  beneficent 
power ;  civilization  is  the  diffusion  of  liberty.  Individual 
liberty  partakes  of  this  true  liberty,  this  beneficent  lib- 
erty, when,  first,  it  belongs  to  powers  harmonized  within 
themselves  ;  and,  secondly,  to  powers  harmonized  within 
the  community.  If  individual  action  is  in  arrest  of  gen- 
eral growth,  it  is  also  in  arrest  of  its  own  growth ;  it  is  in 
conflict,  sooner  or  later,  with  itself  ;  is  unbeneficent,  illegit- 
imate, self-destructive.  All  organization  within  the  state, 
however  partial  and  incomplete  it  may  have  been,  how- 
ever faulty,  judged  by  some  later  or  more  ideal  standard, 
has  been  legitimate  which  has  been,  then  and  there,  in  fur- 
therance of  power,  in  furtherance  of  liberty.  From  a 
subsequent  position  it  may  bear  the  aspect  of  tyranny. 
That  fact  is  immaterial.  Every  previous  stage  in  prog- 
ress must  bear  this  appearance  to  every  succeeding  one, 


3  6  SOCIOLOGY. 

simply  because  progress  itself  consists  in  casting  off  re- 
straints in  the  diffusion  of  power.  We  shall  come  to  see 
more  and  more  that  this  diffusion  of  power  is  one  process 
for  the  few  and  for  the  many. 

A  pint  of  water  in  the  ocean  seems  insignificant,  but  it 
affects  freely  cosmical  forces,  and  is  freely  affected  by 
them.  Subtile  energies,  near  and  remote,  play  through 
it,  and  extend  its  relations.  A  pint  of  water  in  a  cup  is 
an  appreciable  and  an  important  factor,  but  it  has  lost  in 
a  large  measure  its  cosmic  value  ;  it  lies  in  insulation  and 
suspension  among  working  agencies.  Men  may  readily 
be  more  interested  in  that  which  suffers  the  isolation  of 
a  golden  goblet  than  in  that  which  has  the  wide  range 
of  all  worlds. 

§  4.  Government — passing  the  tribal  form — first  occu- 
pies itself  with  that  organization  which  concentrates 
power, — makes  it  effective,  and  prepares  the  way  for  its 
increase.  Immediately,  however,  there  sets  in  the  OD- 
posite  reflex  tendency  of  diffusion  of  power.  With  this 
movement  arises  the  need  of  the  adjustment  of  powers 
with  powers — of  justice.  This  is  the  process  of  the  ages 
that  widens  and  deepens  till  all  men  and  all  interests  are 
included  in  it.  On  this  readjustment  of  powers  all  light 
falls ;  in  this  readjustment  all  growth  issues.  Organiza- 
tion is  complete  and  perfect  in  the  degree  in  which  all 
latent  powers  are  called  out  and  put  on  a  footing  of  re- 
ciprocal aid  with  other  powers  and  the  powers  of  others. 
There  is  growth  in  society  simply  because  a  complete 
harmony  and  perfect  ministration  of  all  with  all  are  pos- 
sible, and  because  there  are  forces  which  work  uncon- 
sciously and  consciously  toward  this  result.  These  forces 
may  be  turned  aside  from  their  purpose,  and  they  may  be 
accelerated  in  it ;  but  they  are  always  present  to  put  forth 
ceaseless  efforts,  till  the  fitting  relation,  the  creative 


GOVERNMENT.  ^ 

combination  is  reached,  and  the  necessary  and  the  free 
have  united  in  effective  growth. 

Powers  impose  duties.  There  is  no  plainer  principle 
in  morals  than  this,  that  the  harmonious  use  of  a  power 
is  a  duty.  The  primary  and  simplest  form  of  this  princi- 
ple is  that  that  use  of  one's  powers  is  obligatory  which 
promotes  his  own  well-being.  More  thought  ana  insight 
are  called  for  to  impose  that  use  of  powers  which  is  be- 
neficent for  others.  We  come  to  see  but  slowly,  that 
there  is  not  only  no  collision  between  these  two  forms 
of  action,  but  that  in  long  periods  and  broad  relations 
they  are  inseparable  from  each  other.  This  seen,  the 
field  of  morality  is  found  in  its  true  breadth. 

But  we  can  start  with  no  simpler  truth  than  this :  The 
wise  use  of  one's  powers  in  reference  to  one's  self  is  a 
duty;  something  directly  imposed  by  reason  as  in  itself 
rational.  This  duty,  in  relation  to  others,  carries  with  it 
rights.  A  man  has  a  right  to  this  use  of  his  powers  for 
his  own  advantage.  This  is  the  rational  significance  of  a 
power.  The  right,  in  each  case,  accrues  at  once,  and  can 
only  be  overborne  by  sufficient  reasons.  These  reasons 
are  ultimately  the  well-being  of  others — the  well-being  of 
all,  and  so  the  well-being  of  each,  even  his  well-being 
whose  powers  are  restrained.  The  problem  is  never  put 
us  in  morals  of  a  real  and  final  collision  of  interests  be- 
tween any  one  man  and  all  men. 

As  a  man  has  many  powers  so  he  has  many  rights. 
Regarding  men  as  one  species  with  the  same  constitu- 
tional endowments,  their  primitive  powers,  and  so  their 
primitive  rights,  are  the  same.  The  attention  being 
directed  strongly  and  exclusively  to  this  oneness  of  con- 
stitution and  the  typical  character  of  the  individual, 
some  have  reached  the  simple  doctrine  :  Each  man  has 
a  right  to  every  exercise  of  his  jjowers  which  is  con- 

t'LIB 

OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY 


2  3  SOCIOLOGY. 

sistent  with  a  like  exercise  of  the  same  powers  by  others. 
Under  this  principle  the  fountain  of  powers  and  rights 
is  everywhere  the  same — the  individual  in  his  primitive 
endowments.  Each  man  is  the  centre  of  a  circle  of  rights, 
and  each  circle  is  the  same  with  every  other  circle.  The 
protection  of  these  rights  from  trespass  is  justice ;  is  the 
office  of  government.  Social  organization  consists  in 
securing  that  use  of  personal  powers  which  is,  in  each 
and  all,  consistent  with  the  most  complete  possession  of 
one's  own  activity,  and  the  most  perfect  exclusion  of  the 
activity  of  others. 

This  result,  if  fully  reached,  would  be  no  further  or- 
ganic than  is  the  honey-comb.  Each  cell  is  pressed  by 
contact  with  other  cells  into  a  hexagon,  and  they  divide 
the  space  between  them.  They  occupy  all  the  space 
with  an  equality  of  areas  and  a  likeness  of  limits. 

The  idea  involved  in  the  representation  is  a  very  im- 
portant one  on  the  side  of  individual  rights,  but  it  is 
very  far  from  covering  the  whole  ground  of  social  con- 
struction. In  the  first  place,  it  lays  chief  emphasis  on 
constitutional  equality,  whereas  the  facts  of  the  world 
and  the  progress  of  events  are  always  bringing  upper- 
most individual  and  national  variety.  In  the  organiza- 
tion of  society  individuals  have  never  counted  as  equal 
units.  They  could  not  have  so  counted,  simply  because 
they  were,  for  all  practical  purposes,  very  unequal,  and 
out  of  this  inequality  social  movement  was  to  come. 
Men  do  not  to-day  count  as  equal  units.  They  never 
will  so  count.  The  conception  has  not  the  merit  even 
of  standing  for  a  remote  ideal.  No  ideal  can  include  an 
equality,  or  anything  very  near  an  equality,  of  powers 
in  actual  exercise. 

But  if  the  powers  in  exercise  are  not  of  equal  force 
the  areas  occupied  by  them  cannot  be  of  equal  extent 


GOVERNMENT.  ^Q 

What  one  man  does  in  one  direction  may  exclude  other 
men  in  the  same  direction.  What  one  man  has  won  as 
property  another  may  not  be  able  to  win.  The  office 
which  one  enjoys  is  not  open  to  another.  The  influence 
which  one  man  exerts  is  more  or  less  at  the  expense  of 
the  influence  of  his  neighbors.  Human  enterprise  has 
a  common  territory  which  men  occupy  somewhat  to  the 
exclusion  of  each  other.  We  are  not  dealing,  as  in  the 
hive,  with  identical  instincts,  but  with  variable  enthu- 
siasms. The  man  of  persuasive  wisdom  wins  the  field  to 
the  apparent,  and  at  times  to  the  real,  exclusion  of  com- 
petitors. They  may  gain  by  his  gains,  but  if  they  do 
they  gain  as  the  soldier  gains  by  the  enterprise  of  his 
leader.  The  space  between  soldier  and  leader  is  increased 
by  the  dominant  vigor  of  the  leader.  The  right  of  the 
soldier  to  become  a  leader,  if  he  can,  resting  on  inade- 
quate powers,  may  be  no  more  significant  than  the  right 
of  a  man  to  fly. 

Yet  this  principle  of  equality  does  invite  attention, 
though  in  a  somewhat  obscure  and  fanciful  way,  to  the 
original  unity  of  man's  nature,  and  hence  to  a  certain 
identity  of  powers,  duties  and  rights.  It  enforces, 
though  not  in  a  practical  form,  the  recognition  of  this 
unity  of  constitution  in  social  organization.  This  princi- 
ple of  equality  is  like  the  law  of  gravitation :  it  is  always 
at  work,  but  never  entirely  prevails.  If  gravity  did  pre- 
vail, it  would  destroy  all  organic  construction  ;  if  equal- 
ity prevailed,  it  would  arrest  at  once  social  organization. 
Yet  neither  of  these  great  forces  is,  therefore,  to  be 
neglected.  The  principle  of  equality  modifies  all  results, 
as  gravity  alters  all  life ;  and  each,  when  there  are  no  more 
potent  energies  at  work,  defines  what  the  issue  will  be. 
Equality  is  not  a  "  glittering  generality,"  though  it  may 
never  completely  cover  any  social  facts.  It  is  present  in 


40  SOCIOLOGY. 

all  social  facts,  making  them  different  from  what  they 
otherwise  Would  be.  The  stake  does  not  fasten  the 
tethered  horse  to  one  spot,  but  it  and  the  rope  together 
define  his  circle  of  movement. 

Equality  before  the  law  is  a  very  subtile  and  abstract 
idea,  but  also  a  very  real  and  potent  one.  It  stands  for 
a  constant  renewal  of  opportunity  in  every  man,  for 
quick  potency  in  personal  powers  as  soon  as  they  arise. 
It  stands  for  one  great  condition  of  progress :  the  desire 
to  reduce  the  results  of  past  defeat ;  the  wish  to  renew 
the  struggle  of  life  on  fresh  and  fair  terms.  Healthy, 
human  society  is  made  up  of  these  two  conflicting  ten- 
dencies toward  inequality  and  toward  equality  ;  the  pur- 
pose to  win  power  and  the  purpose  to  divide  it ;  the 
encouragement  of  enterprise  and  a  redistribution  of  its 
fruits. 

§  5.  The  second  objection  to  this  formula  of  an  equal- 
ity of  individual  powers,  when  it  is  looked  on  as  the 
organic  law  of  society,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  it  does 
not  recognize  the  powers  which  society  itself  possesses, 
the  powers  to  which  it  gives  rise  in  groups  of  individuals, 
and  the  various  ways  in  which  it  enlarges  the  primitive 
endowments  of  men.  The  distinction  between  natural 
rights  and  civil  rights  is  a  vanishing  one  at  intermediate 
points,  yet  it  indicates  distinctly  two  positions  which  are 
very  far  apart.  The  savage  retains  his  implements  of 
war  and  of  the  chase  by  direct,  personal  force,  by  natural 
possession.  A  wealthy  citizen  in  a  civilized  community 
may  hold  a  large  property  of  visible  and  invisible  forms, 
and  in  remote  localities,  and  hardly  be  aware  of  the  fact 
that  any  watch  or  protection  is  called  for.  The  state 
immensely  extends  the  field  of  possession,  and  makes  it, 
through  its  enlarged  domain,  far  more  efficient  than  it 
previously  was  in  its  narrow  bounds.  There  is  no  parity 


GO  VERNMENT.  4  j 

in  volume  between  natural  rights  maintained  by  personal 
power  and  civil  rights  supported  by  the  state.  The 
state  also  confers  powers  on  the  individual  quite  beyond 
anything  of  which  he  finds  himself  in  possession.  For 
example,  the  state  grants  a  patent  right,  and  the  pat- 
entee is  at  once  prepared  to  enforce  ownership  of  the 
utmost  value  over  the  whole  national  area.  It  should 
also  be  noticed  that  such  a  gift  is  in  direct  contradiction 
of  the  principle  of  equal  individual  rights.  The  patent, 
once  granted,  makes  an  express  difference  between  this 
man  and  all  other  inventors  in  the  same  field,  prior,  con- 
temporary or  subsequent.  The  ground  is  pre-occupied 
to  the  exclusion  of  all  claimants. 

The  state  also  confers  new  and  great  powers  on  sub- 
ordinate groups,  or  is  the  means  of  developing  them  in 
these  groups,  such  as  simple  associations,  co-partner- 
ships, companies,  corporations.  Here  are  new  sources 
of  strength  that  carry  with  them  new  duties  and  new 
rights.  The  inequality  already  existing, between  individ- 
uals is  greatly  increased  by  this  additional  inequality  be- 
tween a  single  man  and  a  strong  body  of  men  acting 
together.  The  rights  of  these  corporations  are  an  insep- 
arable compound  of  natural  rights  and  civil  rights,  of 
what  men  can  do  by  united  effort,  and  of  this  form  of 
action  extended,  sustained  and  defined  by  law. 

The  state  itself,  also,  by  virtue  of  being  a  state,  comes 
at  once  into  the  possession  of  powers  quite  diverse  from 
those  of  the  individual,  and  very  much  greater  than  his. 
These  powers  immediately  carry  with  them  duties  and 
rights.  These  new  possibilities  are  not  an  aggregate 
simply  of  the  potentiality  of  each  man  composing  the  com- 
munity. The  state  as  a  state  enters  directly  upon  a 
complete  circle  of  higher  relations  to  other  states,  and 
to  its  own  citizens,  of  which  the  individual  knows  noth- 


42  SOCIOLOGY. 

ing.  In  the  last  resort,  the  individual  aids  by  physical 
force  in  sustaining  these  powers,  but  the  powers  spring 
up  of  themselves  from  the  new  attitude  which  belongs 
to  the  state.  The  sovereignty  of  the  state  is  no  more 
made  up  of  driblets  conceded  it  by  its  citizens  than  is  the 
efficiency  of  a  machine  the  sum  of  the  efficiency  of  its 
separate  parts.  This  idea,  then,  of  primitive  and  equal 
and  exclusive  powers  in  persons,  as  the  ultimate  organic 
units  of  the  state,  is  in  no  way  applicable. 

This  conclusion  is  farther  enforced  by  the  fact  that  the 
state  is  organic,  and  not  composite.  It  is  organic  in  this 
sense :  that  undesigned  and  inevitable  forces,  as  well  as 
designed  and  voluntary  ones,  take  part  in  its  formation, 
and  that  this  formation  is  one  of  diverse,  mutually  exclu- 
sive and  reciprocal  functions.  An  organic  body,  in  the 
measure  in  which  it  is  organic,  does  not  admit  of  identi- 
cal and  equal  units ;  its  units  cease  to  be  identical  in 
office  and  alike  in  powers,  and  owe  their  greatly  in- 
creased value  to  a  division  of  offices,  and  to  mutual 
helpfulness  through  distinct  forms  of  service. 

The  truth  of  this  view  is  also  seen  in  the  fact  that  it 
explains  the  past.  We  cannot  pronounce  the  very  move- 
ment by  which  all  progress  has  been  achieved — the  only 
movement  which  has  in  truth  been  possible — an  illegiti- 
mate one.  It  may  bear  this  aspect  at  some  times  and  in 
some  of  its  features,  but  as  a  whole  it  must  have  been 
essentially  correct,  otherwise  growth  ceases  to  be  growth, 
and  the  true  movement  would  have  been  something 
which,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  could  not  have  been. 
A  theory  of  simply  individual  rights  ruins  itself  by  being 
inapplicable  to  the  facts,  past,  present  and  to  come, 
which  have  constituted,  constitute  or  will  constitute  the 
state.  Each  state  has  been  legitimate  in  the  degree  in 
which,  then  and  there,  it  has  lain  in  the  line  of  the  devel- 


GOVERNMENT.  ,~ 

opment  of  the  powers  of  men,  singly  and  collectively. 
Collective  power  has  come  first  and  individual  powers 
have  grown  up  under  it  and  by  it.  This  fact  belongs  to 
the  constitution  of  man,  and  gives  the  only  possible 
order  of  growth.  Each  state  determines  its  character 
by  its  attitude  toward  that  phase  of  progress  with  which 
the  community,  in  its  internal  and  external  circumstances, 
is  occupied.  To  deny  suffrage  to  women  to-day  may  be 
a  grievous  act  of  tyranny  ;  to  construct  a  monarchy  in  the 
past  may  have  been  a  humane  labor. 

§  6.  We  shall  all  feel,  however,  that  this  doctrine  of 
primitive  and  equal  rights  springs  from  a  deeper  struggle 
in  the  mind  for  a  principle,  and  for  a  principle  of  more 
moment,  than  the  considerations  now  offered  have  indi- 
cated. All  growth  arises  from  what  we  may  figuratively 
term  a  conflict  between  two  tendencies,  one  of  concen- 
tration and  one  of  diffusion.  The  solar  system  in  its 
qentrifugal  and  centripetal  forces  rehearses  this  lesson. 
Organic  energy  in  the  living  body  is  incident  to  decom- 
position and  recomposition  in  its  ultimate  constituents. 
Taken  as  a  whole,  its  composite  life  is  due  to  separation 
and  union — a  separation  of  organs  and  functions  in 
action,  and  a  union  of  them  in  reciprocal  offices.  If 
either  tendency  encroaches  on  the  other,  if  the  organ 
acts  without  primary  reference  to  the  body,  if  the  body 
in  its  joint  efforts  encroaches  on  the  organ,  weakness  and 
decay  must  follow.  In  government,  concentration  comes 
first,  and  may  easily  anticipate  and  prevent  diffusion — the 
growth  of  functions  and  powers  in  the  individual.  Cor- 
rection of  this  evil  means  liberty,  and  becomes  a  perpet- 
ual claim.  Yet  an  individuation  which  should  go  to  the 
extent  of  this  principle  of  equality  would  so  weaken  the 
body  politic  that  its  several  members,  while  seeming  to 
gain  power,  would  lose  it  in  a  high  degree.  Order, 


,,  SOCIOLOGY. 

strength  lie  in  that  balance  between  concentration  and 
diffusion  which  yields  the  largest  aggregate  life.  The 
principle  of  equality  is  meant  to  bring  strongly  out  the 
vigor  of  the  unit ;  lose  this  and  all  is  lost.  There  must 
be  a  current  and  a  counter-current,  an  ever  renewed  ten- 
dency to  enlarge  individual  power,  accompanied  by  the 
tendency  to  hold  it  compactly  within  that  complete  cur- 
rent known  as  the  state.  The  state  must  find  its  power 
in  the  individual,  the  individual  must  command  the  full 
power  of  the  state.  This  is  a  government  of  the  people 
for  the  people. 

There  must,  therefore,  be  a  perpetual  effort  toward 
diffusion,  a  struggle  constantly  to  renew,  through  the 
entire  community,  the  powers  and  rights  of  each  man 
as  an  essential  condition  of  free  and  fresh  combination. 
The  life  of  society  is  one  of  mobile  equilibrium.  It  does 
not  so  much  abide  in  a  body  organized  in  a  definite  way, 
once  for  all,  as  in  a  body  that  is  ever  renewing  and  mod- 
ifying its  organization  in  reference  to  a  more  perfect 
product.  Freedom  for  this  movement,  and  freedom  for 
the  "individual  to  take  part  in  it:  these  are  the  primary 
wants  of  society.  Fresh  individuals  are  coming  from  all 
quarters  and  from  all  classes  with  every  variety  of  powers  ; 
and  mobility,  as  complete  as  possible,  is  the  condition  of 
free  participation  in  healthy  growth. 

The  principle  of  equality  aims  at  this  liberty,  and  is 
just,  so  far  as  it  is  necessary  to  it,  and  good,  in  so  far  as  it 
reaches  it.  Equality,  however,  as  an  arbitrary,  absolute 
factor,  would  destroy  all  combination,  and  so  destroy  its 
own  value.  Liberty  is  for  the  sake  of  combination,  and 
equality,  in  the  potentialities  which  society  confers,  is  for 
liberty.  All  combination  tends  to  become  fixed,  and  so 
to  destroy  farther  combination.  Liberty,  equality  re- 
sist this  tendency,  and  renew  day  by  day  the  conditions 


GOVERNMENT.  ^ 

of  farther  growth.  Thus  many  of  our  states  revise  their 
constitutions  from  time  to  time  to  admit  fully  into  the 
fundamental  law  new  conditions.  A  race  that  is  fair 
demands  an  equal  start.  The  race  itself  destroys  at  once 
this  equality  of  advantages,  and  a  series  of  races  must 
renew  it.  As  new  competitors  appear,  or  old  competi- 
tors seek  a  new  trial,  the  games  are  restored  by  restoring 
their  first  terms.  A  wise  state  must  concede  a  certain 
concentration  of  power.  To  deny  this  accumulation  of 
power  is  to  refuse  organization,  and  so  take  away  the 
promise  of  growth.  The  state  must  also  by  every  just 
device  restore  the  conditions  of  renewed  organization,  and 
prevent  the  past  from  preoccupying  and  controlling  the 
present.  This  is  the  very  difficult  task  of  government. 
In  this  movable  equilibrium  the  justice  of  to-day 
becomes  the  injustice  of  to-morrow.  The  interests  of 
the  community  demand  a  constant  transfer  of  advantages 
from  competitor  to  competitor.  The  watchful  eye  of  the 
state  must  be  directed  for  protection  to  all  classes  of 
persons  who  are  likely  to  lose  ground  by  their  own  weak- 
ness, and  so  be  permanently  thrown  out  of  the  ways  of 
advancement  by  the  simple  force  of  events.  The  wise 
physician  strives  to  quicken  the  dormant  members  of  the 
body,  and  to  quiet  the  activity  of  the  fevered  ones. 

§  7.  The  office  of  the  state  is  not,  then,  simply  to  rec- 
ognize a  primitive  equality  of  rights,  and  to  grant  these 
rights  that  protection  we  term  justice.  Such  a  course 
will  soon  issue  in  extreme  inequalities.  It  has  the 
far  more  difficult  duty  of  encouraging  and  aiding  unim- 
peded activity  in  every  class,  and  at  the  same  time  re- 
newing its  conditions  in  each  class.  Each  citizen  is, 
under  general  principles,  to  be  put  back  as  speedily  as 
possible  on  his  feet  when  he  has  lost  them.  The  race  is 
to  be  renewed,  morning,  noon  and  night,  on  equal  terms. 


46 


SOCIOLOGY. 


The  state  must  thus  be  benevolent  as  well  as  just. 
While  it  takes  from  no  man  what  he  has,  it  must  not 
allow  any  man  such  an  exercise  of  his  powers  as  will 
ultimately  swallow  up  the  powers  of  other  men.  But 
this,  it  may  be  said,  is  a  return  to  the  principle  of  equal- 
ity as  contained  in  the  doctrine  of  protection  as  the  sole 
duty  of  the  state.  Not  so.  The  state  must  put  posi- 
tive limits  on  powers,  when,  by  natural  force  and  the 
conferred  energy  of  society,  they  are  ready  to  break  the 
bounds  of  prosperous  and  beneficent  competition.  The 
state  must  also  do  all  in  its  power  to  renew,  with  the 
same  certainty  and  constancy  of  renewal  with  which  the 
generations  follow  each  other,  fair  conditions  in  every 
place  for  individual  life,  and  for  the  protection  and  aid 
of  those  classes  which  are  worsted  in  the  general  conflict 
to  that  degree  that  they  are  ready  to  lose  all  part  in  it. 
The  state  must  be  benevolent  as  well  as  just,  and  its 
benevolence  must  look  to  the  same  end  as  its  justice,— 
the  general  well-being,  construction. 

Justice  is  a  claim.  It  rests  upon  a  right.  Benevolence 
is  good-will,  is  a  gift,  springing  freely  from  the  giver. 
Benevolence  in  the  state  is  called  for  in  that  antecedent 
preparation  by  which  classes  are  made  ready  to  advance 
and  maintain  their  rights ;  in  that  aid  by  which  they  are 
directed  and  sustained  in  the  use  of  justice  ;  in  that  de- 
fence against  the  pressure  of  superior  classes  which  is 
liable  to  rob  them  again  of  advantages  once  conceded. 
While  the  state  finds  representation  in  rulers  whose  in- 
terests are  more  or  less  separate  from  those  of  the 
people,  and  who  are  narrowed  in  their  aims  by  these 
personal  concerns,  still  the  officers  of  the  state  are  lifted 
both  by  the  duties  of  their  position  and  by  the  position 
itself  into  the  range  of  the  broader  and  more  inclusive 
motives  which  belong  to  the  general  well-being.  These 


GO  VERNMENT. 

47 

motives  must  be  constantly  operative,  leading  them  to 
furnish  anew  suitable  conditions  between  man  and  man, 
class  and  class,  or  the  narrow  enforcement  of  justice  be- 
tween persons  standing  on  very  unequal  terms  of  advan- 
tage will  go  but  a  little  way  in  securing  prosperity.  The 
state  must  aim  at  a  perpetual  renewal  of  the  opportu- 
nities of  life  in  every  man  and  class  of  men.  No  misfor- 
tune must  be  complete,  no  disposition  final.  Nothing 
must  be  so  settled  that  it  cannot  be  re-settled  on  higher 
grounds. 

This  renewal  of  opportunity,  while  it  is  prompted  by 
good-will,  approaches  a  claim  of  justice,  when  we  are 
reminded  that  .society  itself  is  being  renewed  each  in- 
stant by  those  who  are  coming  into  it  with  claims 
damaged  by  no  previous  failure  on  their  part,  and  nar- 
rowed by  no  delinquency  of  their  own.  A  most  surpris- 
ing tyranny,  covered  up  under  the  laws  of  descent,  is 
that  by  which  the  rights  of  succeeding  generations  are 
defined  by  the  acts  of  previous  generations.  While  we 
could  not  if  we  would,  and  would  not  if  we  could,  cut  off 
the  law  of  natural  descent,  there  is  no  good  reason  for 
adding  to  its  force,  or  extending  its  area,  by  civil  law. 
The  claims  of  the  coming  generation,  bringing  with  it 
fresh  powers  and  fresh  hopes,  should  have  far  more 
weight  with  us  than  we  are  wont  to  give  them.  Posses- 
sion— and  often  our  own  possession  at  that — goes  for  far 
too  much.  Fresh  life,  a  renewal  of  opportunity,  equality 
between  those  holding  and  those  who  are  to  hold  the 
world,  a  lapsing  of  strength  here  to  make  way  for  a 
growth  of  strength  there,  these  are  the  urgent  demands 
alike  of  justice  and  good-will.  This  renewal  of  opportu- 
nity in  behalf  of  those  who  are  to  be,  this  protection  of 
the  future  against  the  present,  should  go  as  far  as  it  can 
go  and  not  destroy  the  favorable  conditions  of  the  pr-ob- 


48 


SOCIOLOGY. 


lem  of  prosperity  already  won  in  the  process  of  solution. 
The  dissolving  of  the  old  must  be  like  decomposition  in 
a  living  tissue,  a  decomposition  which  is  a  product  of 
life  and  leads  to  farther  life.  The  motives  to  activity 
must  remain  relatively  equal:  and  intact  in  each  genera- 
tion, in  that  passing  and  in  that  to  come.  The  mobility 
which  is  advantageous  to  all  must  be  found  everywhere. 
It  is  not  in  its  use  to  be  used  up  at  one  time,  and  so 
lost  to  subsequent  times. 

The  widest  and  most  inclusive  diffusion  of  power, 
issuing  in  the  largest  aggregate  of  power,  is  the  aim  of 
society.  This  process  of  diffusion  is  inevitable,  yet  it  is 
far  more  the  product  of  unconscious  forces  in  its  earlier 
than  in  its  later  stages.  Classes  have  more  power  to 
check  the  movement  than  persons,  and  nations  than 
classes.  Narrow  and  selfish  tendencies  are  better  dis- 
guised and  more  effective  when  they  are  united  to  race 
distinctions  than  when  operative  between  man  and  man 
in  common  citizenship.  In  all  later  stages  of  diffusion, 
benevolence — a  direct  recognition  of  the  general  well- 
being,  and  a  conscious  pursuit  of  it — becomes  the  dom- 
inant impulse.  The  unconscious  is  ever  preparing  the 
way  for  the  conscious,  and  later  social  constructions  arise 
in  the  clear  light  of  reason,  and  under  the  warmth  of 
universal  regard.  Only  thus  can  the  inner  and  the 
outer,  the  higher  and  the  lower,  the  life  and  the  form  of 
life,  be  made  fully  concurrent  in  a  beautiful  product. 

§  8.  If  this  movement,  starting  in  the  push  of  individ- 
ual powers  that  draw  into  their  current  the  powers  of  all 
about  them,  fails  to  be  followed  by  a  steady  extension 
and  diffusion  of  power,  in  the  military  and  in  the  indus- 
trial stages,  it  first  suffers  arrest  and  then  retrogression. 
This  statement  is  self-evident.  The  growth  of  power 
must  be  extended  by  its  diffusion.  It  is  impossible  to 


GOVERNMENT.  ,g 

concentrate  it  in  persons  or  in  classes  or  in  nations  other- 
wise than  by  this  very  process  of  enlarged  organization. 
If  power  ceases  to  enlarge  itself  it  runs,  like  life,  a  brief 
career,  and,  in  the  constant  flux  of  forces,  begins  to 
decay.  In  periods  of  conquest,  this  weakness  issues  at 
once  in  defeat  and  overthrow.  Outside  pressure  pre- 
cipitates internal  change. 

In  our  own  time,  when  the  possibilities  of  conquest 
are  greatly  reduced,  it  may  not  seem  so  easy  to  answer 
the  question,  How  will  arrest  in  the  growth  of  liberty 
destroy  a  nation  ?  It  is  still  possible,  however,  as  in  the 
case  of  Turkey,  that  slow  disintegration  will  follow  on 
internal  decay.  A  nation  may  thus  perish  by  the  silent 
encroachments  of  stronger  forms  of  life  about  it.  While 
a  military  age  may  settle  these  questions  readily  and 
rapidly  on  the  simple  basis  of  force,  an  industrial  era  may 
reach  the  same  result  with  hesitation  and  delay. 

An  industrial  form  of  society  introduces  a  great  many 
new  factors ;  alters  within  each  nation  the  basis  of  weak- 
ness and  strength  ;  greatly  checks  the  spirit  of  conquest, 
putting  in  its  place  that  of  commercial  enterprise ;  and 
gathers  distinct  nations  together  in  a  confederacy  of  un- 
written law,  which,  without  relieving  them  from  violence, 
reduces  its  range,  and  gives  a  guarantee  of  their  mutual 
integrity.  While  industry  has  not  yet  cast  off  the  im- 
mense burden  of  war,  it  has  greatly  reduced  its  possibil- 
ities of  disaster,  has  put  upon  it  a  new  form,  and  made 
it  in  a  measure  subordinate  to  itself.  In  a  military 
period  an  empire  begins  to  weaken  the  moment  it  ceases 
to  be  able  to  incorporate  its  conquests,  to  make  them 
share  and  enlarge  its  strength.  In  a  partially  industrial 
era,  when  diffusion  is  checked  between  classes,  a  nation 
suffers  at  once  the  decay  of  luxury.  Those  above  and 
below  are  enervated,  disunited  and  laid  open  to  inside 

4 


5Q  SOCIOLOGY. 

conflict  and  outside  pressure.  The  question,  How  will 
arrest  in  liberty,  in  a  primarily  industrial  period,  destroy 
a  nation  ?  must  be  answered  in  view  of  new  internal 
changes.  The  question  virtually  becomes,  How  do  in- 
dustrial interests  enlarge  themselves,  making  way  for 
higher  development ;  and  how,  ceasing  to  grow,  do  they 
destroy  the  growth  already  achieved  ?  The  new  spirit 
by  which  an  industrial  nation  must  complete  its  growth 
is  that  already  indicated, — the  spirit  of  good-will.  If  the 
gains  of  industry  are  allowed  to  fall  chiefly  to  one  class, 
and  its  labors  to  another  class,  the  motives  of  industry 
begin  to  be  lost  over  large  areas  of  population.  If  there 
is  intelligence  enough  to  discern  and  resent  the  fact, 
restlessness  and  dissension  follow.  Existing  ties  of  or- 
ganization are  weakened,  and  there  are  no  better  ones 
to  take  their  place.  Social  questions,  as  in  Ireland,  are 
discussed  with  bitterness,  and  give  rise  to  violence. 
Unaided  by  good-will,  justice  is  confused  in  theory  and 
lost  in  practice. 

Under  these  circumstances  one  or  other  of  two  ten- 
dencies must  find  way.  The  community  must  sink  back 
to  a  construction  that  rests  on  force,  and  so  be  ready  to 
take  the  chances  of  violence  within  and  without,  or  it 
must  rise  by  discussion  and  concession  to  a  higher  plane 
of  good-will.  An  era  of  good-will  must  settle  the  ques- 
tions which  an  era  of  industry  brings  into  the  fore- 
ground. The  intellectual  activity  of  such  a  period  is 
borne  into  every  class  of  society,  and  the  new  issues 
which  are  raised  between  class  and  class  must  be  settled 
with  the  liberal  and  final  adjustments  of  sound  reason. 
Failing  of  this,  there  will  be  a  recession  in  society  toward 
violence.  Strife  within  the  nation  will  carry  it  forward 
to  a  higher  civilization,  or  force  it  back  toward  the  civil- 
ization it  has  already  left.  There  will  be  little  reluc- 


GOVERNMENT.  ^ 

tance  even  to  conquer  a  people  whose  foundations  are 
breaking  up  within  themselves.  The  real  reason  of  the 
division  of  Poland  was  the  want  of  inner,  coherent  na- 
tional life.  The  upper  classes  were  hopelessly  divided 
against  the  lower  classes  and  between  themselves. 
Anarchy  will  make  way  for  the  most  untoward  adjust- 
ments. Industrial  growth  must  ripen  into  a  pervasive, 
intellectual  and  spiritual  unity,  or  it  will  simply  have 
raised  a  strife  between  man  and  man,  class  and  class,  to 
its  own  ruin. 

This  fact  begins  to  be  illustrated  in  our  own  time  by 
the  rise  of  socialism,  full  of  an  irrational  and  bitter  tem- 
per, and  yet  with  an  obscure  principle  at  its  centre 
which  feeds  its  diseased  energy.  Let  the  working  classes 
become  partially  intelligent,  and  at  the  same  time  en- 
counter a  hand  of  power  pressing  them  backward,  which 
they  know  not  how  to  meet,  and  they  will  fall  into  the 
fallacies  of  socialism,  and  cruel,  blind  overthrow  will  fol- 
low on  selfish,  blind  construction.  The  danger  in  this 
direction  is  now  distinctly  visible.  The  serpent's  head 
is  above  the  grass. 

§  9.  There  remains  one  other  question  which  we  wish 
to  consider  in  this  connection  :  the  right  of  the  state 
to  plan  and  pursue  the  general  weal ;  the  right  of  the 
state  to  supplement  the  unconscious  organic  tendencies 
from  which  it  springs,  and  which  are  always  with  it,  by 
conscious  efforts  directed  toward  the  same  end.  We 
have  recognized  it  as  a  fundamental  principle  in  morals, 
that  powers  impose  duties,  and  duties  confer  rights. 
This  principle  is  applicable,  whether  the  powers  under 
consideration  are  those  of  one  man  or  of  ten  men  acting 
conjointly,  or  of  the  state.  The  individual  has  no 
deeper  foundation  for  his  rights,  and  the  state  has  no 
less  foundation.  If  three  men  standing  upon  the  shore 


$2  SOCIOLOGY. 

can  man  a  boat  lying  on  the  beach,  it  becomes  their  duty 
to  rescue  a  drowning  man  in  the  surge,  and  it  becomes 
their  right  to  lay  hold  of  the  means  necessary  for  this 
result.  A  duty  springs  out  of  the  power,  and  as  the 
power  belongs  to  the  three  collectively,  the  right  accom- 
panies it  in  that  form.  Neither  is  the  state  emasculate 
in  this  regard.  It  may  do  what  it  can  do  on  the  same 
grounds  and  for  the  same  reasons  that  the  individual 
seeks  his  own  well-being.  Its  powers  are  as  much  its 
own  as  are  the  powers  of  those  who  compose  it.  The 
power  of  a  man,  the  power  of  a  father,  the  power  of  a 
ruler,  is,  in  each  case,  defined  by  his  circumstances,  and 
in  turn  assigns  his  field  of  action. 

Facts,  the  history  of  the  world,  confirm  this  view.  So 
states  have  been  formed  ;  so  they  all  stand  to-day,  the 
freest  and  the  best  of  them.  They  rule  their  citizens  as 
exigencies  demand  and  circumstances  permit.  They  put 
them  in  office  or  put  them  in  prison ;  they  leave  them 
unrestrained  or  they  conscript  them,  according  to  the 
case  in  hand.  While  not  everything  that  is  is  right,  the 
inevitable  and  universal  movement  of  society  discloses 
the  laws  which  underlie  it,  and  our  theories  must  be  as 
broad  as  these  facts. 

The  general  well-being  cannot  be  fully  met  by  any 
other  view.  The  very  view  is  that  this  well-being  may 
be  pursued  by  the  state  with  all  its  available  resources. 
Their  relation  to  this  well-being  defines  the  justness  of 
means,  and  not  the  relation  in  which  they  stand  to  the 
primitive  rights  of  the  individual.  The  individual  for 
the  moment  is  gathered  into  a  larger  life  and  must  share 
its  fortunes.  Any  other  theory,  by  sacrificing  the  state, 
sacrifices  the  individual  also,  as  the  larger  includes  the 
less.  The  well-being  of  the  state  is  nothing  other  than 
the  well-being  of  its  citizens,  and  though  it  may  not 


GOVERNMENT. 


53 


stand  here  and  now  for  the  welfare  of  each  one  of  these, 
it  does  stand  for  the  indispensable  conditions  of  their 
permanent  and  progressive  prosperity. 

This  view  recognizes  the  organic  force  of  the  state. 
It  is  not  a  piece  of  mechanism  simply,  something  to  be 
made  and  unmade  at  pleasure.  One  form  of  organiza- 
tion lost,  another  springs  up  in  its  place,  and  the  construc- 
tive and  destructive  energies  at  work  stretch  much 
beyond  the  circle  of  choice.  Even  when  they  seem  to 
be  within  that  circle  they  are  only  partially  so.  The  in- 
dividual mind  more  often  has  not  the  power  it  seems  to 
have,  and  is  overshadowed  by  forces  deeper  and  more 
unchangeable  than  itself.  Said  to  me  a  very  intelligent 
man,  who  took  part  in  the  effort  to  establish  a  confed- 
eracy of  states  in  the  southern  portion  of  these  United 
States :  "  During  all  the  later  part  of  the  struggle  we 
saw  clearly  what  the  result  would  be,  but  we  could  not 
stem  the  current  of  events.  We  were  compelled  to  fight 
it  out  in  distinct  view  of  failure." 

We  should  not  mistake  at  this  point.  The  state  is 
both  an  unconscious  and  a  conscious  product ;  an  organic 
and  a  voluntary  one.  In  earlier  periods  it  is  primarily 
organic  ;  in  later  ones  it  is  increasingly  voluntary.  Or- 
ganic forces  prepare  the  way  for,  and  give  footing  to, 
free,  thoughtful  ones,  and  if  at  any  time  these  relax,  those 
take  their  place.  Thus  in  the  body  of  man  physical 
powers  are  the  basis  of  intellectual  ones.  As  thought 
extends,  instinct  recedes  ;  and  as  intelligence  wanes, 
organic  forces  prevail.  We  may  mistake  in  regarding 
the  state  as  wholly  organic,  the  product  of  necessary 
forces;  we  may  make  the  greater  mistake  of  supposing  it 
to  be  a  simply  free  association,  owing  all  its  just  powers 
to  the  consent  of  the  governed.  This  formula  applies,  if 
it  applies  at  all,  to  some  remote  ideal  state  in  which  the 


54  SOCIOLOGY. 

conscious 'and  free  element  shall  have  covered  and  super- 
seded all  unconscious  forces, — that  flow  of  events  which  no 
man  can  stay.  Liberty  and  life,  as  we  now  find  them,  lie 
at  the  line  of  interplay  of  the  fixed  and  the  flexible,  the 
necessary  and  the  free. 

§  10.  If  what  has  now  been  urged  is  granted,  there 
may  still  be  found  some  who  will  deny  the  ability  of  the 
state,  by  its  own  constructive  action,  to  further  the 
public  weal.  The  state  may  do  what  it  can  do,  but  what 
can  it  do  for  men  save  misconceive  and  misinterpret  their 
interests,  forget  the  many  in  searching  for  the  welfare  of 
the  few,  push  aside  the  enterprise  of  some  and  mislead 
that  of  others ;  what  can  it  do  but  hopelessly  entangle 
those  natural  laws  which  lie  at  the  foundations  of  pros- 
perity ?  While  there  is  in  this  phase  of  question  and 
denial  much  wisdom,  there  is  also  no  slight  or  obscure 
error  The  considerations  it  has  to  offer  impose  the 
utmost  caution,  but  they  do  not  forbid  effort.  The  very 
evils  that  are  attributed  to  the  interference  of  the  state 
show  that  the  state  is  not  as  powerless  as  the  theory 
implies.  If  it  can  do  evil,  as  all  admit,  it  can  also  do 
good.  If  it  is  potent  enough  to  embarrass  the  laws  of 
nature,  it  should  be  potent  enough  to  aid  them.  Says 
Mr.  Rogers  :  "  In  1814,  the  quarter  session's  assessment 
and  the  compulsory  apprenticeship  enacted  by  the  act  of 
Elizabeth  were  abrogated.  They  had  done  their  work 
thoroughly,  and  the  regulation  of  laborers'  wages  had 
been  so  completely  successful  that  they  were  made 
mechanically  to  follow  the  price  of  food."  *  "I  have 
shown  from  the  earliest  recorded  annals,  through  nearly 
three  centuries,  the  condition  of  the  English  laborers  was 
that  of  plenty  and  hope ;  that  from  perfectly  intelligible 

*  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  501. 


GOVERNMENT.  -- 

causes — natural  and  legal — it  sank  within  a  century  to  so 
low  a  level  as  to  make  the  workman  practically  helpless, 
and  that  the  lowest  point  was  reached  just  about  the 
outbreak  of  the  great  war  between  King  and  Parliament. 
From  this  time  it  gradually  improved  till  in  the  first  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  though  still  far  below  the  level 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  achieved  comparative  plenty. 
Then  it  began  to  sink  again,  and  the  workmen  experi- 
enced the  direst  misery  during  the  great  continental  war. 
Latterly,  almost  within  our  own  memory  and  knowledge, 
it  has  experienced  a  slow  and  partial  improvement,  the 
causes  of  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  liberation,  of  indus- 
try from  protective  laws,  in  the  adoption  of  certain  prin- 
ciples which  restrained  employment  in  some  directions, 
and  most  of  all  in  the  concession  to  laborers  of  the  right, 
so  long  denied,  of  forming  labor  partnerships."  *  The 
author  discusses  at  length  the  effects  of  customs  and  laws 
on  labor  through  many  centuries  of  English  history, 
establishing  the  fact  that  they  have  done  great  injury 
and  also  rendered  substantial  aid.  These  facts  confirm 
our  conclusion,  that  tfye  state  is  certainly  not  powerless 
for  evil,  and  is  as  certainly  powerful  for  good.  The  les- 
son taught  us  is  not  one  of  non-interference  but  of  wise 
guidance,  a  careful  study  of  all  the  forces  with  which  we 
have  to  do,  and  a  handling  of  them  according  to  their 
nature.  This  is  no  more  impossible  in  the  use  of  collec- 
tive power  than  in  the  use  of  individual  power.  The 
individual  helps  himself  by  working  with  natural  law ; 
the  state  may  do  the  same  thing.  Both  have  made 
grievous  mistakes ;  both  should  learn  to  correct  them. 
Wisdom  is  no  more  denied  to  the  state  than  to  the  citi- 
zen. The  inference  from  the  follies  of  the  state  goes 

*  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  522. 


56  SOCIOLOGY. 

quite  too  far,  and  in  affirming  these  follies  to  be  com- 
plete and  inexhaustible  we  go  quite  too  far  for  any 
scheme  of  human  progress. 

We  have  considered  simply  the  fundamental  principles 
operative  in  the  growth  of  civil  society ;  such  principles 
as,  united  with  the  leading  incentives  of  economics,  re- 
ligion, morality,  are  always  present  to  determine  social 
construction.  There  are  many  forms  of  government, 
many  stages  of  government,  many  degrees  of  change 
from  stage  to  stage.  These  give  occasion  for  numerous 
subordinate  principles.  It  belongs  to  the  science  of  gov- 
ernment to  discuss  these  fully ;  nor  are  they  unimportant 
in  connection  with  sociology.  A  rapid,  synthetic  survey, 
however,  calls  only  for  those  primary  terms  which  out- 
line the  directions  and  forms  of  growth.  The  discussion 
of  details  is  later,  pertains  more  immediately  to  the  sev- 
eral branches  of  the  subject,  and  is  more  historic. 

,  The  first  product  of  organic  action  is  custom.  The 
formation  of  customs  is  largely  of  that  spontaneous,  un- 
designed nature  which  is  frequently  termed  instinctive. 
Civil  government  follows  at  once  out  of  custom  and  with 
custom,  supplementing  it  with  more  definite  construction, 
while  it  itself  is  supplemented  by  customary  sentiments, 
manners,  methods.  Civil  government  involves  a  more 
direct  and  clear  appeal  to  reason  than  that  contained  in 
custom.  Custom  and  civil  government  unite  in  giving 
that  social  order  which  prepares  the  way  for  economics 
— production  and  exchange.  The  principles  which  con- 
trol this  extensive  and  engrossing  field  are  next  in  order. 

In  connection  with  this  social  construction  and  activ- 
ity there  arise  religious  ideas,  so  largely  the  product  of 
social  activity,  and  in  so  many  ways  and  so  profoundly 
modifying  it.  Supreme  above  these  contending  forces, 
these  diverse  incentives  in  social  action,  rise  the  moral 


GOVERNMENT.  57 

sentiments.  Moral  law  is,  in  a  supreme  sense,  social  law. 
The  true  harmony  of  individual  and  social  incentives  is 
morality.  The  method  which  does  this  work  completely 
expresses  the  moral  law.  Religious  ideas  sustain  and 
enlarge  the  principles  of  morality,  and  find  their  clearest 
statement  in  them.  The  love  of  God  on  its  visible  side 
is  the  love  of  men.  Morality  is  that  truly  comprehensive 
law,  that  profoundly  rational  insight,  which  comes  to  all 
individual  lines  of  effort,  assigns  them  an  ultimate  end, 
and  defines  their  relation  to  each  other  under  it.  Sociol- 
ogy culminates  in  moral  philosophy, — the  philosophy  of 
human  activity  in  all  its  phases,  in  all  its  incentives  and 
in  its  individual  and  social  terms. 

The  development  of  society  can  no  more  end  in  an 
industrial  stage  than  it  could  have  terminated  in  a  mili- 
tary one.  It  must  press  forward  under  the  profound 
forces  of  our  spiritual  nature  to  a  moral  stage,  which  is 
a  completion  of  rational  construction  under  all  the  diver- 
sified and  growing  impulses  of  a  spirit  rich  in  original 
powers  and  acquired  activities. 

We  are  entitled  to  these  leading  conclusions.  Civiliza- 
tion means  a  constant  increase  and  diffusion  of  powers. 
That  this  increase  may  go  forward  powers  must  be  more 
and  more  harmonized  within  themselves  and  made  more 
and  more  extendedly  beneficent.  This  means  organiza- 
tion, integration.  It  is  an  office  of  government  to  initi- 
ate, protect  and  extend  this  movement.  The  movement 
can  only  be  perpetuated  by  constantly  rising  to  higher 
planes  of  action,  by  accepting  broader  impulses.  If 
these  better  impulses  are  at  any  stage  of  progress  re- 
jected, decay  and  retrogression  follow.  The  growth  of 
society  lies  between  force  tinctured  by  reason  and  reason 
escaping  from  force. 


CHAPTER  III. 

ECONOMICS. 

§  i.  POLITICAL  Economy  is  one  of  the  most  distinct, 
well-developed  and  exact  of  the  social  sciences.  It  ob- 
tains this  apparent  completeness  by  isolating  its  data, 
and  considering  them  out  of  their  actual  relations. 
When  the  entire  facts  of  which  these  data  are  a  portion 
reappear  in  their  full  variety  and  complexity,  the  pre- 
cision and  decision  which  belong  to  the  principles  of  this 
science  are  in  a  measure  lost.  There  is  the  same  differ- 
ence between  the  economic  facts  of  the  world  and  our 
reasoning  about  them  that  there  is  between  applied  and 
pure  mathematics,  though  this  difference  is  greater  in 
degree.  The  theory  of  mechanics  is  absolute ;  its  prac- 
tice is  beset  with  changeable  terms  beyond  our  knowl- 
edge. In  daily  calculations  we  deal  with  averages, — 
average  friction,  average  strength  of  material,  average 
accuracy  of  workmanship. 

Political  Economy  treats  of  the  industrial  principles 
which  control  the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth 
in  a  community  and  in  the  world.  The  science  is  pos- 
sessed of  an  extended  array  of  principles,  and  in  spite 
of  much  unfavorable  criticism,  is  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful and  valuable  products  of  human  thought.  As 
the  facts  of  Political  Economy  belong  either  directly  or> 
indirectly  to  human  action,  its  incentives  are  those  of* 
the  human  mind.  The  impulses  it  takes  under  consid- 
eration, and  to  which  it  almost  wholly  confines  its  atten- 

58 


ECONOMICS.  59 

tion,  are  obvious  desires  and  repugnances  which  belong 
in  different  degrees  to  all  men.  Any  form  of  gratifica- 
tion which  turns  directly  on  wealth,  or  is  aided  by  its 
possession,  calls  out  a  desire  for  it.  Any  gratification 
which  is  interfered  with  by  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  even 
if  it  be  no  more  than  the  pleasure  of  indolence,  occasions 
a  disinclination  to  the  labor  demanded  by  production. 
Political  Economy  considers  human  action  as  it  lies  be- 
tween these  two  simple  sets  of  incentives.  All  is  wealth 
which  has  an  exchange  value  on  this  ground  of  gratify- 
ing human  desire,  and  all  exertion  to  produce  wealth  in 
the  face  of  this  disinclination  is  labor. 

All  that  we  are  now  interested  in  considering  is  the 
relation  of  Political  Economy  to  Sociology,  and  this  is 
found  not  so  much  in  its  special  principles  as  in  the  first 
assumptions  and  fundamental  forces  which  underlie  them. 
These  all  turn  on  the  simple  opposing  motives  which 
create  conflicts  of  feeling  in  the  individual  and  of  inter- 
ests between  individuals.  It  becomes,  in  this  limited 
view,  an  axiom  that  each  man  will  desire  the  largest 
return  with  the  least  labor.  This,  on  purely  economic 
grounds,  is  the  only  rational  attitude  of  mind,  and  thus 
presumably  the  universal  one.  In  a  theoretic  separation, 
therefore,  of  economic  incentives  from  all  other  incen- 
tives, the  statement  becomes  a  fundamental  truth.  Nor 
is  such  a  separation  in  scientific  analysis  unwise  or  un- 
fruitful. This  axiom  expresses  the  law  of  forces  which 
are  uniformly  present  in  human  action,  no  matter  how 
much  they  may  be  modified  in  any  given  case  by  other 
considerations.  It  is  a  strictly  scientific  process  to  trace 
these  motives  by  themselves,  and  so  to  develop  the  prin- 
ciples of  production  that  depend  upon  them. 

A  second  fundamental  assumption  is  that  the  direct, 
natural  corrective,  and  within  the  science  itself  the  only 


6o  SOCIOLOGY. 

corrective,  of  exaction  is  competition.  If  one  will  not 
put  forth  a  given  amount  of  labor  for  given  wages, 
another  person  must  be  sought  who  will  accept  the 
terms,  and  the  consensus  of  a  given  community  as  to 
wages  and  prices  is  the  only  possible  measure  of  values 
— of  human  desires  and  repugnances  expressed  in  terms 
of  wealth.  Political  Economy  deals  in  its  discussions 
with  large  communities,  and  the  larger  the  community 
the  more  equable  and  fixed  is  the  average  which  is  ex- 
pressed in  values  of  all  sorts.  It  seems  obvious,  at  once, 
that  the  fluctuating  desires  of  men,  which  are  the  basis 
of  values,  can  reach  no  expression  otherwise*  than  by  this 
extended  competition,  and  that  this  competition  or  com- 
parison is  the  natural  corrective  of  any  excess  or  defect 
in  anyone  person  or  place.  It  is  at  least  plain  that  there 
is  no  other  measure  of  values.  For  any  one  man  or  set 
of  men  to  force  an  exchange  on  terms  satisfactory  to 
themselves  is  to  break  up  the  whole  theory  and  fact  of 
a  play  of  desires  and  of  interchange  under  it.  When  the 
principle  of  competition  is  set  aside,  Political  Economy 
goes  with  it.  This  principle  is  fundamental  in  the  sci- 
ence, and  in  the  facts  of  which  it  treats,  unless  violence 
intervenes. 

A  third  principle  follows  from  these  two,  and  is  urged 
as  a  safeguard  against  either  a  selfish  or  a  benevolent 
trespass  on  the  field  of  Economics.  Each  man  is  the 
rightful  judge  of  his  own  desires  and  the  appropriate 
protector  of  his  own  interests.  If  he  has  an  exceptional 
desire  or  repugnance  he  is  entitled  to  it.  No  man  may 
force  an  exchange  upon  him.  Such  an  exchange  loses 
at  once  its  economic  character.  Each  man  is  for  a  like 
reason  entrusted  with  his  own  interests,— interests  which 
no  man  but  himself  can  fully  understand  or  fully  feel, 
and  no  man  but  himself  so  well  watch  over.  To  inter- 


ECONOMICS.  5X 

fere  with  this  principle  is  to  rule  out  the  natural  players 
in  the  economic  game,  and  so  break  up  the  game  itself. 
No  man  may  claim  his  own  and  another's  also.  That 
right  which  entitles  him  to  see  to  his  own  concerns  for- 
bids him  to  meddle  with  those  of  another  man.  The 
facts  of  the  world,  at  least  in  its  better  portion  and  on 
the  surface  of  things,  meet  this  theory  fairly  well.  The 
most  prosperous  community  is  plainly  that  in  which  each 
man  is  most  freely  at  work  on  his  own  affairs. 

The  above  principles  are  so  clear  and  so  pervasive  as 
to  give  the  foundations  of  a  science  ;  and  the  science  itself 
is  so  close  to  the  facts  which  it  concerns  as  to  touch  the 
great  central  forces  operative  in  them,  even  if  these 
forces  are  not  always  the  controlling  ones. 

§  2.  Having  stated  the  fundamental  incentives  in  Polit- 
ical Economy,  and  the  axioms  which  follow  from  them, 
we  wish  to  inquire  what  are  the  extraneous,  modifying 
forces  with  which  they  are  found  associated.  The  first 
and  simplest  of  these  axioms,  and  the  one  of  broadest 
application, — that  men  desire  the  largest  returns  with  the 
least  labor — is  far  from  fully  covering  and  actually  ex- 
pressing the  impulses  which  take  part  in  defining  labor. 
The  axiom  implies  for  its  uniform  and  ready  presence 
as  a  law  of  action  complete  intelligence  and  mobility; 
intelligence,  in  order  that  the  workman  may  see  with 
correctness  what  lightest  lines  of  labor  promise  the 
largest  returns  ;  and  mobility,  that  he  may  at  once  fall 
into  them.  As  we  move  downward  in  social  life  both 
of  these  conditions  are  rapidly  lost.  It  would  seem  to 
require  but  a  simple  order  of  intelligence  to  discern  the 
most  profitable  forms  of  labor  open  to  one,  and  very 
narrow  insight  may  often  suffice  for  this  purpose.  Yet 
if  we  undertake  to  answer  in  any  large  way  the  question 
of  the  most  fruitful  application  of  labor,  we  shall  have 


62  SOCIOLOGY. 

occasion  for  far-reaching  inquiry  into  the  future  and  sharp 
insight  into  the  present  conditions  of  production.  Very 
few  laborers  are  able  to  overlook  even  the  particular 
field  of  effort  to  which  they  belong,  and  so  to  guide  their 
action  in  it  with  wisdom.  The  impulses  expressed  in 
the  axiom  are  present  to  supply  the  needed  force,  but  the 
proper,  wise  direction  of  the  force  remains  a  question  of 
doubt.  There  is  not  sufficient  intelligence  to  give  it  any 
safe  answer.  There  are  thus  much  delay  and  many  mis- 
takes in  action  because  of  the  want  of  the  knowledge 
which  the  axiom  implies.  Action  under  it  is  blind  and 
illogical  through  all  the  degrees  of  ignorance. 

The  want  of  mobility  among  workmen  is  still  more 
fatal  to  the  universality  of  this  axiom.  What  does  it 
profit  us  to  know  the  law  of  a  perfect  fluid  if  that  with 
which  we  have  to  deal  is  an  exceedingly  imperfect  one. 
Ignorance  not  only  weakens  the  force  of  inducements 
that  ought  to  prevail,  it  gives  occasion  to  many  other  mo- 
tives, more  or  less  irrational,  which  ought  not  to  prevail. 
Habit,  customs,  laws ;  local  attachments,  the  want  of  the 
means  immediately  necessary  for  a  change  of  occupation, 
present  burdens  that  demand  instant  labor ;  senseless 
fears,  the  real  difficulties  that  attend  on  a  transfer  to  a 
new  neighborhood,  and  on  a  change  from  one  branch  of 
labor  to  another ;  the  immediate  reduction  of  skill  inci- 
dent to  a  new  occupation,  the  loss  of  the  consideration 
and  confidence  already  won  ;  the  inertia  of  ignorance, 
the  thousand  and  one  blind  feelings  that  confine  a  man 
to  a  familiar  path,  the  faults  and  vices  that  lead  to  the 
same  result — these  influences,  and  many  more  are  present 
to  make  dull  workmen  an  exceedingly  refractory  form 
of  material.  They  obey  no  law  perfectly,  whether  of  wis- 
dom or  of  folly.  They  mingle  many  impulses  in  a  stupid, 
vicious,  unfortunate  result.  In  the  degree  in  which 


ECONOMICS.  63 

this  axiom  prevails  it  prepares  the  way  for  further  and 
more  complete  power ;  but  in  the  degree  in  which  it  fails 
in  one  instance,  does  it  still  further  fail  in  other  instances. 
Economic  action,  like  heat,  increases  the  fluidity  of  its 
material,  while  sluggishness  congeals  it  more  and  more. 
Intelligence,  economic  virtue,  social  virtue,  are  all  requi- 
site in  some  good  degree  before  the  units  of  the  social 
mass  can  feel  and  obey  the  forces  expressed  in  the  ax- 
iom, the  largest  return  with  the  least  labor.  The  facts 
often  seem  to  present,  in  a  very  obvious  way,  an  exactly 
opposite  method,  the  least  returns  with  the  largest  labor. 
Poor  husbandry  and  inferior  methods  of  all  sorts  are 
examples  in  point.  A  gang  of  a  half  dozen  laborers  calls 
for  an  overseer,  chiefly  to  keep  them  at  work.  Yet  the 
direct  and  obvious  result  is  that  his  better  paid  labor  is 
to  act  as  a  charge  on  their  own  inferior  wages.  All  the 
clannish  instincts  of  workmen,  all  their  prejudice  against 
new  ways,  lead  to  the  same  issue. 

A  good  illustration  of  the  friction  which  may  accom- 
pany economic  motion  is  found  in  the  distribution  of 
taxes.  Economists  point  with  satisfaction  to  the  fact 
that  taxes,  laid  on  almost  any  form  of  possession  or  pro- 
duction, shortly  spread  through  the  community.  Yet  this 
movement  may  be  a  very  slow,  severe  and  unjust  one. 
Some  producers  are  likely  to  be  ground  into  powder  in 
the  process.  Till  the  price  of  the  article  taxed  can  be 
raised,  and  production  is  fitted  to  these  new  terms,  each 
man  must  make  what  shift  he  can  under  the  new  burden 
laid  upon  him.  The  promised  quiet  of  next  year  does 
not  abate  the  strife  of  the  current  year. 

When  an  exceedingly  heavy  tax  was  placed  on  spirits, 
the  consumption  of  alcohol  in  the  arts  was  reduced ;  not 
so  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks.  This  steadily  increased. 
A  blind  appetite  transferred  an  immense  load  of  tax- 


64  SOCIOLOGY. 

ation  to  the  poor.  This  is  the  more  plain  when  we  con- 
trast the  duties  on  wines,  the  beverage  of  the  rich,  with 
the  tax  on  spirits,  the  beverage  of  the  poor. 

Under  the  laws  of  Political  Economy  there  should  have 
been  a  reduction  of  consumption  by  a  tax  that  multiplied 
the  cost  of  spirits  fivefold,  and  indirectly  gave  rise  to 
much  adulteration  in  them.  An  irrational  appetite,  how- 
ever, prevented  any  corresponding  response  to  these 
changed  conditions,  and  an  immense  burden  of  taxation 
was  thus  rolled  upon  the  poor. 

Economic  virtues,  that  is,  economy,  thrift,  the  power 
to  endure  a  temporary  strain,  are  absolutely  necessary  to 
give  one  that  mastery  of  circumstances  which  enables  him 
to  enter  at  option  on  any  new  undertaking.  Most  work- 
men are  like  water  that  runs  down  hill :  there  is  really  but 
one  channel  open  to  them,  and  that  the  lowest.  Simple 
dulness  causes  labor  to  gravitate  to  the  most  unproduc- 
tive forms. 

Bad  habits,  gross  indulgences  and  vice  have,  in  a  yet 
higher  degree,  the  same  effect.  The  use  of  tobacco  not 
only  imposes  a  grave  pecuniary  burden,  cutting  one  off 
from  some  share  of  the  liberty  of  motion,  the  offence  aris- 
ing from  it  presents  an  obstacle  in  many  directions  to  ad- 
vancement, and  helps,  by  an  additional  grossness  of  taste, 
dulness  of  perception  and  sluggishness  of  feeling,  to  ren- 
der nugatory  many  of  the  more  delicate  incentives  to 
progress.  In  short,  this  axiom  can  be  fully  operative 
among  intelligent  men  only,  since  it  appeals  to  intelli- 
gence ;  and  among  those  of  a  justly  sensitive  and  well- 
ordered  organization,  as  the  motives  offered  by  it  will 
fail  to  be  felt  by  those  strongly  predisposed  to  some  more 
blind  and  passionate  mode  of  action.  Men  cannot, 
therefore,  in  the  world  as  we  find  it,  be  left  to  this  first 
principle  of  Economics  as  if  it  were  automatic  in  its  ope- 


ECONOMICS.  6- 

ration,  and  they  all  fully  under  it.  It  stands  for  a  great 
and  aidful  force  in  progress,  but  one  whose  conditions  of 
successful  application  must  be  provided  for,  and  whose 
directions  in  use  must  be  received  from  other  and  higher 
motives. 

§  3.  The  second  principle,  that  the  proper  measure  of 
values  is  prevalent  desires,  and  that  the  only  method  of 
their  determination  is  competition,  is  still  farther  from 
sufficiently  covering  and  expounding  the  complex  facts 
to  which  it  pertains.  What  purpose  is  this  competition 
expected  to  subserve?  It  is  expected  to  provide  an 
open  market.  A  market  implies  an  extended  demand  ; 
and  an  open  market  one  in  which  this  demand  is  not 
modified  otherwise  than  by  economic  causes.  These 
economic  causes  which  control  prices  are  cost  of  produc- 
tion and  supply  and  demand.  The  second  of  these  is 
alone  directly  operative  on  prices.  Cost  of  production 
and  period  of  production  are  of  no  moment  save  as  they 
effect  supply  and  demand.  These  general  statements 
sufficiently  present  the  case  for  our  immediate  object. 
The  part  which  competition  plays  is  to  bring  the  supply 
and  the  demand  together  in  such  amounts,  and  under 
such  conditions,  that  they  shall,  as  a  broad  and  full  ex- 
pression of  the  facts,  rule  prices.  It  is  not  an  economic 
maxim  that  an  article  is  worth  what  it  will  bring,  except 
as  the  conditions  of  exchange  are  such  as  to  cover  the 
naturally  controlling  facts  in  the  case.  If  any  price  that 
can  be  obtained  under  any  circumstances  is  an  econom- 
ically fit  one,  then  competition  has  no  function.  Its 
function  is  to  subject  exchange  to  average  terms,  as  op-* 
posed  to  exceptional  ones ;  or,  better,  so  to  widen  the 
field  of  exchange  as  to  give  the  freest,  and  therefore  the 
most  favorable,  play  to  all  economic  causes.  This  result 
5 


56  SOCIOLOGY. 

is  expressed  as  an  open  market,  a  large  and  free  arena  of 
sales. 

As  sales  are  narrowed  this  advantage  is  lost.  If  there 
are  only  two  persons  to  exchange  services  or  products 
with  each  other,  the  sale  is  not  only  open  to  the  effect  of 
excessive  or  exceptional  desires,  the  desires  themselves 
may  receive  no  just  comparison.  Reticence  or  deception 
may  so  disguise  the  desires,  that  the  price  shall  not  stand 
for  the  real  relation  of  interests  between  the  parties  tp 
the  sale.  Competition  is  looked  to,  both  to  exclude  ex- 
traneous influences  and  also  to  include  so  large  a  circle  of 
pertinent  causes  as  to  make  each  transaction  typical  of 
the  economic  facts  involved.  This  statement  of  the  case 
may  seem  vague,  and  yet  it  covers  the  fundamental  con- 
ditions of  proximately  just  exchanges.  The  price  of  any 
commodity  in  an  open  market  defines  property  and  the 
relations  of  justice  in  any  given  transaction. 

How  far  does  competition  accomplish  this  purpose  of 
furnishing  to  production  fit,  advantageous,  just  condi- 
tions of  exchange  ?  How  far  does  it  define  and  measure 
existing,  natural  forces?  It  is  difficult,  in  the  first  place, 
to  secure  a  market  for  many  products  and  services  in  the 
sense  of  an  extended  opportunity  of  exchange.  There 
may  easily  be  too  few  to  purchase  a  service,  or  too  few 
to  sell  it ;  and  so  competition  failing,  regulation  fails  with 
it.  The  tides  are  in  the  ocean  but  do  not  reach  the 
lakes  and  inland  seas.  Competition  may  not  cover  the 
case,  nor  provide  any  remedy  when  the  want  is  most  ur- 
gent. It  may  be  said,  it  is  true,  that  this  fact  itself  of 
want  of  demand,  or  want  of  supply,  is  an  economic  one, 
and  rightly  rules  prices.  This  assertion  is  true  and  un- 
true. This  state  of  things  does  express  the  conditions 
which  must  govern  present  sales.  But  looked  at  as  an 
unfortunate  social  fact,  competition,  alone,  provides  for  it 


ECONOMICS. 


67 


no  sufficient  remedy.  It  simply  emphasizes  the  evil.  If 
laborers  offer  their  services  where  there  is  no  demand,  or 
a  very  limited  one,  wages  instantly  fall  or  fail  them  alto- 
gether. Competition  discloses  the  disaster  but  does  not 
remove  it.  It  is  to  be  overcome  largely  by  moral  causes, 
and  not  purely  economic  ones.  Intelligence,  thrift,  vir- 
tue, are  now  the  measures  of  redress,  and  the  appeal  such 
facts  present  must  search  the  community  broadly  above 
and  below  for  these  qualities.  The  appeal  is  to  alter  the 
economic  conditions  outside  of  simply  economic  forces. 

Again,  there  must  be,  in  order  that  competition  may 
reach  its  object,  some  parity  of  conditions  between  the 
purchasers  and  sellers.  If  one  class  is  pressed  by  urgent 
wants,  and  the  other  is  at  its  ease,  new  factors  enter  the 
economic  problem  aside  from  those  of  supply  and  de- 
mand. Workmen  can  often  live  for  a  brief  period  only 
without  labor,  and  employers  are  often  comparatively  in- 
dependent in  this  respect.  The  balance  of  desires  is 
greatly  altered,  much  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  laborer. 
Again  it  may  be  said  that  this  state  of  things  is  a  fit  and 
potent  factor  in  supply  and  demand,  and  again  the  same 
answer  is  applicable.  The  workman  is  to  learn  in  the 
moral  and  social  world  those  conditions  of  life  which  ena- 
ble him  to  make,  enter  and  use  a  market  of  services  ad- 
vantageous to  himself.  It  is  not  a  market  alone  that  he 
needs,  but  a  free  market ;  and  such  a  market  is  deter- 
mined in  force  and  form  by  the  moral  temper  of  those  who 
enter  it.  If  the  sale  of  his  services  is  a  forced  one  it  is 
because  he  has  won  no  personal  freedom.  Economic 
power  is  inseparable  from  moral  power ;  moral  mastery 
means  industrial  mastery ;  and  mastery,  wide  mastery, 
mastery  for  all,  means,  in  economic  expression,  a  free 
market.  Competition  can  show  what  the  facts  are,  what 
the  market  is ;  high  intellectual  and  moral  quality  can 


58  SOCIOLOGY. 

alone  make  the  market  what  it  ought  to  be, — an  advanta- 
geous market,  a  free  market.  Industrial  and  moral  mo- 
tives concur  in  reaching  this  result,  but  neither  is  suffi- 
cient without  the  other. 

Competition  may  also,  as  an  equalizer  of  prices,  be  re- 
strained by  a  natural  unity  of  interests  in  the  sellers  or  in 
the  buyers.  They  may  all  belong  to  one  class,  and  so 
have  a  unity  of  interests  which  limits  competition.  In 
the  professions  the  competition  between  the  members  of 
the  profession  frequently  lies  in  securing  employment, 
and  not  in  the  price  of  services.  By  this  competition  the 
purchaser  is  not  aided.  The  convenience  of  a  fixed  price 
in  a  few  articles — as  a  loaf  of  bread,  a  cigar,  a  glass  of 
beer,  a  ride  in  a  street  car — becomes  such  as  to  change 
the  form  of  competition  in  much  the  same  way. 

A  few  producers  in  any  department  feel  inevitably  this 
unity  of  interest,  and  are  more  or  less  influenced  by  it. 
Concerted  action  is  natural,  almost  inevitable  with  them, 
even  when  it  is  not  expressed  in  definite  terms  of  combi- 
nation. Capitalists  are  thus  on  vantage  ground  in  com- 
parison with  workmen.  The  smallness  of  their  numbers, 
their  interests,  their  social  relations  and  habits,  accustom 
them  to  a  courtesy  of  concession  which  is  equivalent  to 
combination.  Some  employers  regard  it  as  a  personal 
injury  for  another  employer  to  offer  their  workmen,  as 
they  term  them,  higher  wages ;  and  most  persons  object 
to  this  method  when  applied  to  domestic  servants.  The 
combination  of  workmen,  on  the  other  hand,  is  always 
formal,  partial,  often  difficult  and  burdensome,  awkward 
in  use  and  mistaken  in  method.  A  prejudice  exists 
against  these  combinations,  and  a  censure  falls  upon  them 
which  is  not  felt  by  capitalists  either  in  their  tacit  or 
formal  agreements.  Yet  the  workmen  can  meet  harsh 
conditions  only  by  these  objectionable  forms  of  union. 


ECONOMICS.  69 

The  disasters  of  competition  thus  fall  heavily  in  one  di- 
rection and  lightly  in  another. 

Natural  affiliation  may  easily  pass  into  formal  compact. 
A  few  persons  may  combine  and  so  shut  off  the  correc- 
tions of  competition.  This  really  occurs  when  the  com- 
petitors are  limited  in  number  and  united  in  interest. 
Railroads  are  constantly  vacillating  between  violent  com- 
petition and  explicit  agreement. 

Still  another  limitation  on  competition  as  an  equalizing 
force  in  exchange  are  the  monopolies  which  arise  by  law 
or  by  natural  advantages,  or  by  the  two  combined.  Rail- 
roads, by  their  first  expense  and  by  the  fact  of  a  franchise, 
have  a  more  or  less  extended  monopoly.  They  also  give 
rise  to  many  other  monopolies,  as  telegraph  companies, 
express  companies,  companies  that  furnish  running  stock 
and  sleeping-cars,  and  other  companies,  as  coal  and  oil 
companies,  whose  prosperity  can  be  made  dependent  on 
railroads.  They  may  also  give  in  many  departments  of 
business,  without  being  able  to  control  them,  unequal 
terms  of  transfer,  and  so  alter  the  natural  conditions  of 
production.  Monopoly  still  strikes  heavy  blows  at  com- 
petition by  means  of  natural  or  of  legal  advantages. 

A  not  less  important  restriction  in  competition  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  it  is  chiefly  operative  at  midway 
points  of  prosperity,  and  that  extreme  poverty  reaches 
quite  below  it  and  extreme  wealth  rises  quite  above  it. 
All  productive  processes,  as  they  increase  in  extent, 
increase  the  gains  of  purchase  and  sale,  increase  the 
economy  of  management,  multiply  the  incidental  acces- 
sories of  manufacture  and  of  commerce,  and  add  greatly 
to  the  power  of  the  producer  to  avail  himself  at  once  of 
unusual  advantages  of  any  kind,  and  to  readily  tide  over 
any  disaster.  So  great  are  this  increased  ease  and  profit 
of  business  in  large  undertakings,  that  the  very  wealthy 


«Q  SOCIOLOGY. 

not  only  distance  those  of  moderate  wealth,  they  often 
render  continued  production  on  their  part  impossible. 
Wealth  as  wealth  holds  a  natural  monopoly  under  the 
laws  of  production  themselves  which  no  open  market 
can  overcome ;  nay,  to  which  an  open  market  has  minis- 
tered. The  power  which  falls  to  extreme  wealth,  and 
the  weakness  which  falls  to  extreme  poverty— the  de- 
struction of  the  poor  is  their  poverty — arise  within  the 
laws  of  production,  suspend  the  wholesome  action  of 
those  laws,  and  are  to  be  corrected,  if  corrected  at  all, 
outside  of  those  laws.  We  must  bring  to  production  a 
temper  higher  than  the  competitive  one  if  we  wish  to 
escape  the  extreme  evils,  the  last  miscarriage,  of  a  com- 
mercial community. 

It  is  perfectly  plain  that  these  considerations,  "which 
limit  the  value  of  competition  as  a  social  force  without 
for  a  moment  suspending  it  in  its  operation,  affect  the 
laborer  unfavorably  and  the  capitalist  favorably ;  or,  more 
justly,  they  oppress  the  poor  man  and  aid  the  rich  one. 
The  advantages  which  wealth  wins  for  itself  become  too 
great  for  the  general  well-being,  too  great  for  competition. 
The  fundamental  division,  therefore,  between  the  two  ex- 
tremes of  society  is  not  only  not  closed  up  in  a  simply 
industrial  era,  it  is  liable,  as  a  last  result,  to  be  greatly 
widened  and  deepened.  Simple  industry  no  more  gives 
a  well  organized  society  with  harmony  of  interests  than 
does  simple  strength.  Indeed,  wealth  is  another  form  of 
strength.  The  industrial  type  is  no  more  complete 
within  itself  than  is  the  military  type. 

§  4.  The  third  primary  principle  in  Economics  follows 
from  the  other  two,  and  can  have  no  more  extension 
than  is  granted  to  them.  If  it  is  far  from  true  that  men 
are  perfectly  mobile  under  productive  motives ;  if  it  is 
still  farther  from  exact  truth  to  affirm  that  competition 


ECONOMICS.  ^ 

is  a  sufficient  correction  of  the  unfavorable  and  unequal 
terms  of  exchange  that  are  constantly  arising,  it  is  also 
manifestly  incorrect  to  affirm  that  each  man  may  be  left 
to  look  to  and  protect  his  own  interests.  Production  in 
a  high  degree  develops,  especially  in  its  later  stages,  the 
very  unequal  gifts  and  opportunities  of  men,  and  instead, 
therefore,  of  putting  them  on  approximately  common 
conditions  of  advantage,  it  rapidly  broadens  the  divis-' 
ions  between  classes  and  persons,  and  makes  the  acqui- 
sition of  wealth  more  and  more  impossible  to  moderate 
and  inferior  ability  in  a  depressed  position.  Nor  is  this 
the  worse  result.  While  the  general  social  level  is  raised 
by  production,  the  relative  inequalities  are  often  so  in- 
creased as  to  make  the  interplay  of  moral  sympathies  in 
important  respects  more  limited  than  before.  It  is  not 
physical  destitution  which  oppresses  men  so  much  as 
social  inferiority,  want  of  respect  and  of  inducements  to 
enterprise.  Hence  it  happens  that  a  great  commercial 
city,  in  its  luxury  on  the  one  hand  and  extreme  poverty 
on  the  other,  presents  an  ethical  and  social  result  hardly 
in  advance  of  barbarous  life.  The  growth  of  wealth  has 
given  wider  play  to  selfish  and  vicious  impulses,  and 
these  have  consumed  many  of  its  gains. 

While  it  remains  true  that  each  man's  fortune  is  com- 
mitted to  himself,  if  we  take  this  statement  as  the  entire 
truth,  and  no  longer  regard  ourselves  as  our  brother's 
keeper,  we  shall  find  that  economic  laws  are  robbed  of 
most  of  their  beneficence  by  the  spirit  with  which  they 
are  used.  These  laws,  left  to  spread  over  the  social  field, 
soon  result  in  that  startling  state  of  society  referred  to, 
in  which  luxury  and  selfishness,  poverty  and  hate,  pre- 
sent their  most  appalling  and  repulsive  contrasts.  Sym- 
pathy and  aid  are  not  only  not  to  be  suspended  by  pro- 
duction, production  is  to  give  fresh  opportunities  for 


72  SOCIOLOGY. 

•their  exercise.  The  fact  that  each  man  should  watch 
over  his  own,  should  stand  on  his  own  feet,  and  walk  by 
his  own  strength,  gives  the  proper  form,  the  true  motive, 
the  real  encouragement  for  help.  Help  that  helps  a  man 
dn  his  feet  is  at  once  the  wisest,  easiest  and  most  needed 
of  all  aid. 

Ethical  laws  do  not  suspend  economic  ones,  nor  can 
.'economic  laws  occupy  any  ground  in  social  action  to  the 
exclusion  of  moral  ones.  The  relation  of  the  two  is  like 
that  of  mechanical  and  chemical  laws  to  vital  laws  in  the 
body  of  man.  The  chemistry  of  a  living  body  is  at  once 
very  like  and  very  unlike  that  of  inorganic  material. 
The  life  avails  itself  of  inferior  terms,  and  makes  them, 
one  and  all,  constructive  by  putting  them  to  the  highest 
uses  under  its  own  control. 

Economic  laws  give  a  middle  and  relatively  neutral 
ground  between  vice  and  virtue.  We  fall  below  them, 
viciously,  substituting  deceit  and  violence  for  them ;  we 
rise  above  them  virtuously,  softening  their  action  and 
readjusting  their  terms  by  good-will.  Strict  obedience 
to  the  laws  of  exchange  is  merely  justice.  We  are  open 
to  complaint  if  we  fail  to  do  this ;  we  have  won  no  right 
to  praise  if  we  do  it.  Production,  under  its  own  laws,  is 
a  neutral  position  in  the  moral  world  ;  the  negative  and 
the  positive  lie  on  either  hand.  They  are  found  in  the 
disposition  with  which  wealth  is  made  and  used.  What 
we  need  to  remember  is,  that  the  same  set  of  facts  may 
come  under  two  or  more  forms  of  law.  While  the  laws  of 
exchange  serve  to  define  property,  the  uses  of  property 
lie  under  a  higher  law,  a  law  that  is  present  equally  in 
the  making  and  expending  of  money.  The  same  im- 
pulses that  prompt  a  kindly  expenditure  call  for  kindly 
production.  Making  and  spending  are  inseparable  proc- 
esses in  the  continuous  life  of  a  good  man. 


ECONOMICS.  j~ 

Some  distinguished  economists  make  a  grievous  mis- 
take at  this  very  point.  They  are  so  jealous  of  the 
authority  of  the  laws  of  Political  Economy ;  they  have 
seen  so  much  evil  arise  from  a  supercilious  neglect  of 
them,  that  they  are  ready,  in  turn,  to  affirm  their  abso- 
lute and  exclusive  application  within  their  own  fielcf. 
They  forget  that  different  laws  rest  on  the  same  phenom- 
ena, and  that  the  most  pervasive  and  potent  law  ia 
society  is  that  of  morality. 

§  5.  We  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  we  are  not  discussing 
the  doctrines  of  Economics  as  they  lie  coherently  in  their 
own  field,  we  are  emphasizing  the  fact  that  that  field  is 
not  one  set  off  to  them  for  their  exclusive  use,  but  one' 
reached  by  an  analysis  of  incentives  in  a  very  complex 
form  of  life.  Hence,  in  the  real  world,  where  all  influ- 
ences are  in  full  play,  these  discarded  forces  must  be 
restored,  and  the  economic  problem  at  any  one  time 
before  us  becomes  a  complex  social  one  interlaced  with 
custom,  with  civil,  religious,  and  ethical  factors. 

The  question  in  Economics  most  frequently  and 
urgently  treated  in  our  time,  the  question  to  which  all 
other  social  questions  are  leading,  is  the  relation  of  labor 
and  capital.  Though  labor  and  capital  are  united  in  fact 
in  every  variety  of  way  and  of  degree,  the  two  words 
have  been  seized  on  to  express  the  poor  and  the  rich, 
those  economically  feeble  and  those  economically  strong, 
and  to  draw  attention  to  the  division  of  interest  that 
easily  arises  between  them.  The  one  class  brings,  for 
the  most  part,  coarse,  personal  service,  or  service  of  a 
narrow  form,  to  the  market,  and  the  other  brings  accu- 
mulated resources  and  varied  productive  powers.  '  These 
powers  are  united  with  the  possession  or  the  use  of  cap- 
ital. The  real  interest  of  the  discussion  lies  in  the  social 
relation  of  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  strong  and  the 


74 


SOCIOLOGY. 


weak,  and  the  inquiry  of  profound  import  is,  whether 
economic  forces  are  so  potent  and  self-sufficing  as  to  give, 
in  themselves,  the  conditions  of  a  fortunate  adjustment 
of  interests  between  these  two  classes.  The  political 
economist  is  tempted  by  his  partiality  for  his  science  to 
affirm  the  complete  power  of  economic  laws  to  order 
successfully  their  own  result.  The  student  of  sociology, 
with  a  wider  survey  of  the  facts,  is  inclined  to  say,  that 
while  the  incentives  of  exchange  are  always  present,  and 
at  bottom  wholesome  in  their  influence,  they  do  not 
suffice  to  order  social  life,  or  to  carry  society,  even  in  its 
productive  interests,  steadily  forward  to  its  goal. 

This  diversity  of  opinion  arises  in  part  from  the  fact 
that  the  economist  has  in  mind  an  ideal  state  of  general 
well-ordered  prosperity,  and  finds  productive  forces  in 
such  a  state  to  be  in  harmonious  action.  He  forgets  that 
Political  Economy  discusses  only  the  motives  which  urge 
men,  in  the  most  direct  way,  to  pursue  their  own  inter- 
ests, and  that  healthy  society  is  animated  and  aided  by 
many  more,  and  more  gracious  impulses  than  these.  In 
health,  the  functions  of  the  body  fully  and  freely  concur. 
Yet  these  functions,  by  excess  or  deficiency,  may  under 
their  own  laws  easily  give  rise  to  disease.  The  simple 
desire  to  obtain  the  largest  return  with  the  least  labor, 
and  the  competition  which  makes  this  desire  effective, 
are  both  centred  in  self-interest,  in  personal  well-being 
and  not  in  general  well-being;  in  the  development  of 
function,  and  not  in  the  harmony  of  functions.  Personal 
well-being,  interpreted  narrowly  under  a  self-seeking 
temper,  is  not  only  not  in  harmony  with  general  well- 
being,  rendered  broadly  under  a  sympathetic  temper,  it 
is  more  or  less  in  conflict  with  it.  Economics  alone,  rest- 
ing on  its  fundamental  principles,  cannot  bridge  this  gulf 
between  the  one  and  the  many,  cannot  fill  to  harmo- 


ECONOMICS.  j, 

nious  fulness,  and  to  overflow,  the  whole  circle  of  life. 
This  is  a  moral  achievement,  by  which  Economics,  among 
other  things,  must  profit.  While  it  is  true  that  lower 
laws  are  not  abrogated  by  higher  ones,  are  simply  assigned 
a  better  and  more  proportionate  service  under  them,  it  is. 
equally  true  that  lower  laws  cannot  dispense  with  higher 
ones,  or  reach  their  own  ends  without  them. 

The  interests  of  the  employer  and  employee  are,  in 
one  view  of  them,  harmonious,  and,  in  another  view, 
equally  real  and  often  far  more  urgent,  are  opposed  to 
each  other.  The  products  which  are  to  be  divided  be- 
tween capital  and  labor  are  to  be  augmented  by  the 
hearty  concurrence  of  the  two.  Neither  can  reach  its 
ends  without  the  other,  and  neither  perfectly  without  the 
cheerful  aid  of  the  other.  The  laborer  owes  the  success 
of  his  labor  to  the  presence  of  capital,  and  capital  with- 
out labor  is  unproductive.  These  facts,  however,  are  less 
on  the  surface  of  the  relation,  less  forced  on  the  considera- 
tion of  men,  than  the  equally  certain  fact,  that  the  por- 
tion of  gains  in  actual  division  which  falls  directly  either 
to  labor  or  capital  is  enlarged  at  the  expense  of  the  rival 
claimant.  Trade  is  advantageous  to  both  parties,  yet 
this  fact  never  hides  the  more  cogent  fact  that  any  in- 
crease in  the  gains  of  either  the  seller  or  the  buyer  is  at 
the  expense  of  the  other.  So  strong  is  this  feeling,  that 
laborers  engaged  in  manufacture  are  brought  with 
great  difficulty  to  take  the  wider  view.  They  are  not 
willing  to  make  in  the  present  those  sacrifices  on  which 
the  full  success  of  their  efforts  in  the  future  depend. 
This  circumstance  has  often  proved  very  embarrassing 
even  in  cooperative  establishments.  It  is  unreasonable 
to  expect  that  workmen,  in  dealing  with  employers,  will 
allow  their  attention  to  be  directed  to  the  general  gains 
of  good  work  rather  than  to  their  own  immediate  share 


y6  SOCIOLOGY. 

in  those  gains  ;  and  the  more  so,  as  their  only  method  of 
entering  into  this  enlarged  production  is  by  the  means  of 
increased  wages.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  then,  the  conflicting 
elements  are  in  the  foreground,  in  the  relation  of  labor 
and  capital,  and  the  more  remote  ones  which  tend  to 
harmony  are  easily  lost  in  the  background. 

Moreover,  it  is  not  true  that  self-interest,  narrowly 
rendered,  is,  between  these  two  classes,  one  and  the 
same  thing.  The  maxim,  Honesty  is  the  best  policy,  is 
proximately  true  in  a  moral  world ;  it  might  be  pro- 
foundly untrue  in  a  world  like  our  own,  but  with  less 
moral  insight.  It  is  not  altogether  true  in  this  world  as 
a  principle  of  self-interest  simply.  A  good  deal  of  dis- 
honesty prospers ;  it  is  not  condemned  by  its  pecuniary 
results  merely.  When  dishonesty  much  exceeds  current 
morality,  moral  forces  may  intervene  and  cut  off  the 
gains  of  simple  sagacity.  The  proverb  turns  on  this  fact, 
that  dishonesty  is  often  a  mistake,  a  mistake  largely  due 
to  the  moral  forces  at  work  in  the  world. 

The  capitalist  acting  from  self-interest  simply  may 
well  enough  make  terms  with  labor  that  are  hard  to  bear. 
He  is  not  waiting  to  find  his  advantage  in  the  general 
prosperity,  he  is  eagerly  searching  for  it  in  rapid  per- 
sonal gains.  Relative  superiority  is  of  more  moment 
with  him  than  absolute  success.  The  purchasing  power 
of  what  he  possesses  is  measured  more  by  its  superiority 
to  the  possessions  of  those  about  him  than  by  its  actual 
amount. 

In  the  urgent  competition  which  is  the  all  important 
factor  in  the  relation  of  laborers  to  each  other  and  to 
capitalists,  capital  has  immense  and  increasing  advan- 
tage. Numbers  on  the  side  of  capital  are  much  smaller, 
wants  are  much  less  urgent,  advantages  are  rapidly 
accumulative.  Any  unfavorable  results  for  labor  are 


ECONOMICS.  j- 

quickly  augmented  and  reach  soon  the  point  of  absolute 
surrender.  Intelligence,  patience  and  courage,  the  neces- 
sary conditions  of  resistance,  are  daily  lost.  Social 
interest  and  influence  more  frequently  take  side  with 
capital,  and  when  a  final  adjustment  is  reached,  after  a 
bitter  conflict,  the  advantage  is  sure  to  rest  with  capital- 
ist, unless  a  quick  intelligence,  pervaded  by  moral  feel- 
ing, is  present  among  men.  For  this  reason  it  is  that  we 
urge  the  topic,  and  insist  that  moral  laws  must  be  opera- 
tive side  by  side  with  economic  ones,  and  with  mutual 
and  extended  modification. 

§  6.  In  pointing  out  explicitly  this  connection  in  soci- 
ology of  economic  laws  with  other  laws,  particularly 
those  of  morality,  there  are  a  few  additional  points  which 
should  be  distinctly  made. 

(i.)  Economic  virtues,  if  we  may  so  call  them,  are  fun- 
damental, and  are  closely  dependent  on  the  hard  and 
fast  conditions  which  characterize  production  simply. 
They  are  such  qualities  as  industry,  economy,  fore- 
sight, patience.  They  turn  on  a  long  range  of  vision 
under  objects  earnestly  pursued,  and  involve  a  true  and 
stern  adaptation  of  means  to  ends.  They  are  intellect- 
ual virtues  as  well  as  moral  ones,  and  are  absolutely  es- 
sential to  a  strong,  independent  life.  They  imply  that 
clear  and  sufficient  survey  of  the  whole  field  which  puts 
remote  gains  on  a  fair  footing  with  immediate  ones. 
Production  is  the  natural  school  of  these  qualities.  Its 
motives  are  distinct,  strong,  urgent,  and  demand  these 
endowments.  Ethical  discipline,  without  industrial  train- 
ing to  enlist  the  needed  powers,  would  be  the  expen- 
diture of  military  drill  on  few  and  mean  troops.  It  is 
these  personal  resources  of  thrift  and  productive  power 
that  the  moral  law  calls  for,  as  its  own  efficient  servants. 


^8  SOCIOLOGY. 

The  ethical  law  does  not  create  powers,  it  guides  those 
already  active. 

There  is  another  set  of  virtues  that  occupy  ground 
that  lies  between  Economics  and  Ethics,— such  virtues  as 
justice,  honesty,  truthfulness.  The  motives  to  these  are 
double  and  concurrent,  yet  the  concurrence  can  only  be 
fully  felt  when  the  moral  force  is  in  fine  vigor.  Truth- 
fulness, for  example,  is  an  ethical  claim,  and  also  one  of 
interest  in  large  and  diversified  transactions.  As  com- 
merce gathers  extension  and  multiplies  details,  the  spirit 
of  deceit  which  accompanies  dicker  passes  away,  and  is 
replaced  by  truthfulness  and  so  by  confidence,  at  least 
within  recognized  limits.  This  trust,  like  well  con- 
structed highways,  is  essential  to  voluminous  traffic. 
Poor  roads  may  be  endured  when  trade  is  light,  but  they 
must  be  improved  with  every  step  of  extension.  One 
may  lie  about  trifles,  but  cannot  conduct  a  large  business 
with  falsehood. 

(2.)  On  this  basis  of  midway  virtues  in  which  thrift 
and  morality  meet,  there  can  be  built  those  purely  moral 
and  spiritual  virtues  which  owe  their  enforcement  exclu- 
sively to  the  higher  law.  These  gather  about  the  law  of 
love,  and  find  their  productive  centre  in  the  affections. 
Thus  a  second  focus  is  established,  and  forces  which 
have  gone  forth  from  self-interest  are  gathered  in  as 
affections,  and  incentives  which  proceed  from  the  centre 
of  love  turn  back  as  productive  activities,  along  lines  of 
interest.  Both  the  occasion  and  the  means  of  moral 
development  are  found  in  the  unfolding  of  economic 
action.  Poverty,  all  phases  of  inferiority,  make  an 
appeal  of  the  most  tangible  order  to  good-will,  and  every 
measure  of  wealth  furnishes  the  means  by  which  it  can 
be  met.  In  proportion  as  industrial  forces  prevail,  is 
there  a  corresponding  extension  of  the  moral  law,  and 


ECONOMICS.  jg 

corresponding    urgency   in    its   application.       Economic 
forces   are    ready   to   grow   into,   and    must    grow   into, 
ethical    ones,    even    as    a   condition    of   sustaining   their 
own  highest   activity.     Large  production    must    in    any 
long   period    go    hand-in-hand  with    relatively   just   and 
generous  distribution.     We  cannot  maintain  production 
and  reduce  its  economic  motives.     If  we  rely  on  compe- 
tition for  distribution,  that  competition  can   exist  only 
between   those   of   proximately   equal   advantages.     All 
that  morality,  therefore,  does  wisely  in  aiding  those  who 
are  falling  behind,  it   does  in  favor  of  the  most  active 
obedience    to   the   laws   of    production.     If   there   is   a 
growth  from  the  bottom  upward,  there  is  also  one  from 
the   top  downward.     The   conditions  of  productive  and 
ethical  prosperity  are  the  same.     Powers  among  men  and 
advantages  in  their   exercise   are  very  unequal.     When 
circumstances  favor  an  even  start,  the  race  cannot  long 
be  maintained,  if  it  is  not  renewed  by  a  perpetual  re- 
newal of  that  proximate  equality  on  which  it  depends. 
It  is  the  ethical  feelings  which  find  play  and  pleasure  in 
a  transfer  of  power  from  the  rich  to  the  poor,  in  bringing 
into  line  once  more  those  who  are  to  take  part  in  a  new 
contest.     Economic    forces,   acting   alone,  destroy   their 
own  conditions ;  ethical  forces  alone  can  find  no  sufficient 
field.     Both  are  renewed  in  the  perpetual  renewal  of  the 
other. 

(3.)  Growth  is  continuous.  Each  phase  of  it  prepares 
the  way  for  another  ;  each  equilibrium  for  a  higher  and 
more  complex  equilibrium.  No  ground  can  long  be 
held  without  advancing  beyond  it.  The  balance  achieved 
is  a  movable,  a  dynamical  one,  and  must  be  renewed  each 
instant  by  motion  onward.  A  remedy  for  a  social  evil  is 
found  in  progress  only.  The  evil  is  developed  by  condi- 
tions overworn,  and  which  must  be  replaced  by  higher 


go  SOCIOLOGY. 

conditions.  If  the  poor  are  getting  too  poor,  and  the 
rich  too  rich,  for  production,  the  remedy  is  not  more 
production,  but  the  presence  of  better  impulses.  If  this 
demand  is  not  met,  inequality  becomes  excessive,  repul- 
sion dangerous,  and  disruption  imminent.  In  the  equal- 
ized and  pulverized  fragments  a  new  seed-bed  may  be 
found  for  production.  We  may  be  very  sure  that  no 
social  question  can  ever  be  settled  by  a  backward  move- 
ment. If  we  take  an  earlier  position,  a  second  stage  of 
growth  will  renew  the  later  difficulties.  Any  communal 
holding  of  lands  that  has  been  left  behind  has  been  left 
behind  because  it  checked  some  form  of  development, 
some  line  of  activity.  Each  position  can  give  a  demand 
for  the  next,  and  if  this  demand  is  resisted,  the  equilib- 
rium already  attained  is  lost.  Industrial  forces  in  this 
country  are  making  an  urgent  demand  for  higher  moral 
development,  and  failing  of  it,  they  will  fall  into  hope- 
less entanglements. 

(4.)  Social  life  is  comprehensive,  and  in  that  measure 
complete.  This  is  true  of  all  life.  Evolution  in  life  is 
nothing  more  than  an  increase  in  comprehensiveness 
and  completeness,  nothing  more  than  covering  a  larger 
field,  and  covering  it  with  more  rapid  and  perfect  inter- 
actions. If,  therefore,  social  life  touches  spiritual  life  it 
must  more  and  more  cover  it,  and  be  covered  by  it, 
must  put  it  in  more  and  more  complete  interplay  with 
all  below  it.  These  are  first  principles.  Whether  we 
look  at  the  law  of  evolution  or  at  the  intrinsic  claim  of 
righteousness,  we  must  come  to  the  same  conclusion, 
that  the  centre  of  the  movable  equilibrium  in  society  is 
increasingly  ethical;  that  disorder  on  lower  planes  of 
action  must  be  overcome  by  new  order  on  this  higher 
plane.  Decay  discloses  failing  strength  on  this  side,  but 
it  opens  the  way  for  renewed  strength  on  that  side.  We 


ECONOMICS.  g  j 

may  resist  this  correlation  if  we  will,  but  if  we  admit 
higher  spiritual  powers  at  all,  we  must  also  admit  that 
lower  tendencies  demand  them,  will  fall  into  irremedi- 
able confusion  without  them.  Thus  only  do  we  build 
from  beneath  to  that  which  is  above.  The  higher  comes 
to  us  in  completion  of  the  lower.  Along  these  lines 
upward  lie  those  immense  spaces  in  which  the  motion  of 
our  race  can  fully  expend  itself. 

(5.)  The  discussion  had  as  to  the  permanence  of  free 
institutions  finds  its  solution  here.  When  society  has 
not  reached  that  stage  of  moral  development  demanded 
by  a  free  government,  such  a  government  must  necessa- 
rily be  very  fluctuating.  When  it  has  reached  this  stage, 
the  fact  can  hardly  fail  to  express  itself  in  this  form  of 
institutions.  The  United  States  is  successful  in  its 
social  and  civil  organization,  first,  because  of  the  tem- 
per of  its  people,  and.  second,  because  of  its  position. 
This  safety  and  seclusion  of  position  with  it  are  a  terri- 
torial accident,  but  a  like  safety  must  ultimately  be  won 
in  the  heart  of  Europe,  by  simple  principles  of  justice,  if 
society  is  to  progress.  And  society  is  to  progress.  There 
is  very  narrow  use  of  discussing  any  principles  under  any 
other  idea.  Progress  is  the  very  gist  of  the  inquiry. 
6 


CHAPTER  IV. 

RELIGION. 

§  I.  IF  we  look  upon  religion  as  the  various  phases  of 
opinion — with  the  feelings  and  actions  incident  to  them — 
concerning  the  spiritual  relations  and  government  of 
human  life  that  have  pushed  their  way  among  men ;  if 
we  look  on  development  in  religion  as  that  increasing 
depth  and  comprehensiveness  of  statement  which,  gath- 
ering in  the  inner  force  of  many  beliefs,  help  to  unite 
them  and  bear  them  onward,  then  there  is  no  body  of 
opinion  more  manifestly  the  product  of  growth,  or  which 
remains  to  be  more  modified  by  growth,  than  religion. 
While  the  centres  of  a  system  of  faith  have  been  taken 
and  defined,  most  of  the  accumulated  material  of  religion 
found  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men  still  waits  to  be 
brought  into  conformity  with  them,  and  to  be  put  in  rev- 
olution around  them.  The  grand  movement  productive 
of  order  is  everywhere  visible,  but  the  order  itself  only 
appears  here  and  there  in  an  incipient  form. 

Nor  is  this  view  of  the  slow  evolution  or  growth  of 
religious  truth  essentially  altered,  if  we  hold  fast  to  the 
introduction,  from  time  to  time,  of  supernatural  revela- 
tion. Revealed  truths,  notwithstanding  their  origin, 
must  take  their  place  among  the  coherent  convictions  of 
men,  must  be  understood  and  accepted  by  them.  They 
are  to  be  built  into  and  with  previous  beliefs,  and  are 
themselves,  in  their  progressive  unfolding,  to  come  under 
the  laws  of  human  thought  and  of  social  life.  The  on- 

82 


RELIGION.  g~ 

ward  movement  may  be  concentrated  and  accelerated  by 
them,  its  fundamental  character  cannot  be  altered.  This 
is  involved  in  the  facts  to  be  dealt  with. 

If  we  regard  revelation  as  not  addressed  to  reason,  as 
a  series  of  absolute  statements  in  no  way  accessible  to 
human  thought,  and  in  no  way  dependent  on  the  expe- 
rience and  history  of  men  previous  to  their  disclosure, 
then,  indeed,  the  idea  of  growth  is  set  aside,  but  so  also 
is  any  rational  service  of  faith,  any  connection  of  faith 
with  the  constitutional  facts  of  the  intellectual  and  social 
world  and  its  laws  of  development.  The  whole  problem 
we  know  as  the  religious  problem,  to  wit,  the  action  of 
the  minds  of  men  singly  and  collectively  toward  spiritual 
truth,  remains  to  be  worked  out  independently  of  what 
we  choose  to  call  revelation.  Revelation  thus  becomes 
nothing  more  than  an  obstinate,  disengaged,  irreducible 
factor,  alien  to  the  world's  experience,  a  bullet  encysted 
in  a  living  body.  All  revelation  that  reveals  anything, 
that  is  addressed  to  the  minds  of  men,  must  take  its 
place  among  those  many  things  in  nature  and  history 
that  everywhere  disclose, — slowly,  obscurely,  and  with  in- 
numerable mistakes,  it  may  be,  yet  disclose, — spiritual 
relations.  Revelation  is  only  one  fact  concurrent  with 
many  other  facts  to  be  laid  open  by  it  and  discussed 
with  it. 

The  unbelief  which  has  attended  on  the  development 
of  faith  is  not  rightly  to  be  regarded  as  an  alien  and 
conflicting  term,  it  is  rather  a  subordinate  and  concurrent 
one.  Decomposition  attends  on  all  growth.  It  is  one 
aspect  of  growth.  Doubt,  making  way  for  inquiry,  is  a 
moving  power  in  philosophy.  There  is  no  transition 
effected  without  it ;  unbelief  is  the  occasion  of  firmer  and 
deeper  belief.  The  history  of  the  world  everywhere 
verifies  the  assertion.  The  more  active  the  unbelief,  the 


84  SOCIOLOGY. 

more  rapid  the  transfers  of  faith.  Our  time  is  one  of  ex- 
tended unbelief ;  it  is  also  one  of  a  surprising  develop- 
ment of  faith.  The  two  movements  meet  each  other  on 
the  same  ground,  and  are  incidents  of  one  process. 
There  is  no  instance  in  history  in  which  extended  un- 
belief has  not  given  the  conditions  and  causes  of  a  de- 
cisive growth  of  faith.  Christianity  came  in  with,  and 
partially  by  means  of,  such  a  period.  So  also  the  era  of 
the]Reformation  was  one  of  unusual  scepticism.  Buddh- 
ism, that  in  the  outset  involved  a  deep-seated  denial  of 
religious  truth,  shortly  passed  into  a  new  phase  of  faith. 
Great  apostles  of  unbelief,  like  Comte  and  Spencer,  find 
an  unsubstantial  ghost  of  faith  stalking  in  on  them  just 
as  they  seem  about  to  close  their  long  labors  of  denial. 
To  stand  by  a  simple  negation  requires  more  strength 
than  men  are  capable  of ;  or,  rather,  it  is  one  of  those  ex- 
haustive, unprofitable  uses  of  strength  which  must  soon 
come  to  an  end.  Unbelief  needs  no  distinct  treatment. 
It  has  no  separate,  productive  tendencies.  It  arises  from 
and  returns  to  faith  as  a  process  in  growth.  Its  presence 
simply  indicates  the  vigor  and  rapidity  of  the  changes 
going  on.  The  chill  of  unbelief  is  no  more  alarming 
than  that  of  suppuration. 

No  indebtedness  of  religion,  outside  its  own  immediate 
agencies,  will  at  all  equal  that  which  it  is  incurring  and 
is  to  incur  to  science.  It  has  been  borne  upward  with 
novel  buoyancy  and  irresistible  energy  by  this  deep- 
seated  spirit  of  inquiry.  If  to  any  man  faith  seems  dis- 
appearing, it  is  because  his  attention  is  directed  to  its 
old  position,  and  not  to  its  new  and  higher  one  ;  because 
he  sees  the  empty  chrysalis  and  not  the  living  thing  which 
is  leaving  it. 

§  2.  Religion  is  in  the  individual,  is  in  his  attitude 
toward  a  spiritual  world — an  attitude  which  involves 


RELIGION.  g- 

opinion,  feeling,  action.  The  concurrence  of  many  in  one 
attitude  constitutes  a  particular  faith.  As  the  data  of 
faith,  like  those  of  science,  are  essentially  the  same  for 
the  human  race,  they  give  rise,  as  they  are  unfolded  in 
different  degrees  and  in  different  forms,  to  a  history  of 
faith,  a  convergence  of  opinion,  a  philosophy  of  belief. 
This  is  the  development  of  the  collective  convictions  of 
men  touching  the  spiritual  world,  as  science  is  the  collec- 
tive convictions  of  men  touching  the  physical  world. 

It  is  easy,  historically  and  rationally,  to  indicate  the 
lines  along  which  religious  belief  has  been  enlarged,  cor- 
rected, deepened  and  defined.  The  direction  of  this 
movement  can  hardly  be  mistaken.  It  is  first  toward 
the  unity  of  God.  This  is  opposed  to  polytheism,  the 
existence  of  many  spiritual  beings  of  diverse  characters, 
great  powers  and  relative  independence  ;  and  to  dualism, 
the  existence  of  two  principles  or  two  beings  or  two  forms 
of  being,  the  one  good,  the  other  bad,  dividing  the  world 
between  them.  It  is  also  opposed  to  any  hierarchy  in 
the  kingdom  of  Heaven  by  which  saints,  eminent  servants 
of  God,  surround  his  throne  and  mediate  between  him 
and  ordinary  mortals.  The  one  God  stands  out  of  all 
relation  of  gradation  with  any  finite  form  of  life,  and 
stands  in  one  and  the  same  relation  of  a  supreme  pres- 
ence to  every  rational  spirit. 

Not  only  are  such  religions  as  those  of  Greece  and 
Rome  and  Persia  left  behind  by  this  movement  of 
thought,  the  conception  of  a  personal  devil,  the  centre 
of  an  opposed  hierarchy  of  evil  spirits  in  open  conflict 
with  God,  is  equally  excluded.  Each  soul  works  out  its 
own  spiritual  life  in  direct  and  uninterrupted  communion 
with  truth,  with  God.  The  sweeping  away  of  all  obstruct- 
ing, intermeddling  and  intermediate  agencies  from  human 
vision,  and  the  returning  of  the  mind  to  its  direct  de- 


86  SOCIOLOGY. 

pendencies  on  God  as  the  grand,  inclusive  centre  of  faith 
and  life,  is  the  great  issue  toward  which,  from  the  begin- 
ning, religious  thought  has  been  hastening.  The  perver- 
sions of  the  revelation  in, Christ  have  adopted  this  form— 
a  separation  of  the  soul  from  God,  some  method  of  inter- 
mediate dependence  on  him.  They  have  not  grasped  the 
one  truth,  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in  God. 

Philosophy  equally  with  religion  has  given  itself,  espe- 
cially in  more  recent  times,  to  meeting  this  demand  for 
unity.  Monism — unity  of  substance,  or  unity  of  move- 
ment— has  given  form  to  speculation.  Philosophy  has 
struggled  against  the  dualism  thought  to  belong  to  mind 
and  matter  recognized  as  distinct  entities,  and  has  striven 
for  an  evolution  from  a  primordial  term  which  should 
involve  them  both.  Matter  and  mind  have  often  offered 
themselves  to  human  thought — as  to  Plato — not  only  as 
radically  distinct,  but  as  more  or  less  conflicting  terms. 
It  has  been  hard  to  unite  the  two  in  origin,  and  to  har- 
monize them  in  action.  This  has  been  the  problem  of 
philosophy  which  has  kept  pace  with  the  kindred  prob- 
lem of  religion,  the  unity  of  God,  a  unity  so  complete  as 
to  include  all  other  forms  of  rational  life,  as  drops  of 
water  are  gathered  and  held  in  the  ocean. 

§  3.  The  second  product  of  enlarging  faith,  more  and 
more  conscious  of  its  true  grounds,  is  the  personality  of 
God.  This  result  of  religious  thought,  as  well  as  those 
which  remain  to  be  mentioned,  are  concurrent  with  the 
unity  of  God,  and  come  forward  with  it.  By  personality 
we  understand  simply  rationality,  and  by  rationality 
those  powers  of  mind  whose  essential  form-element  is  con- 
sciousness, and  whose  activity  includes  all  degrees  and  all 
varieties  of  comprehension,  knowledge.  Reason,  knowl- 
edge, righteousness  admit,  under  terms  of  human  expe- 
rience— which  we  regard  in  its  'fundamental  character- 


RELIGION.  g^ 

istics  as  an  absolute  or  universal  experience — of  no  real 
meaning  aside  from  consciousness.  If  they  are  affirmed 
as  existing  aside  from  consciousness  they  find  for  the 
human  mind  no  interpreting  fact  whatever,  and  the  sym- 
bol being  lost  under  which  experience  writes  down  its 
predications,  the  statements  themselves  as  intelligible 
propositions  disappear  with  them.  Nothing  can  be  more 
alien  to  human  experience  than  reason  which  is  not  cog- 
nizant of  its  own  processes  and  conclusions,  since  reason 
lies  in  this  very  cognition  ;  than  knowledge  which  is  not 
known  to  itself,  since  this  transparency  within  itself  is  its 
essential  idea.  While  the  terms  of  experience  do  not 
measure  knowledge,  they  do  furnish  its  necessary  forms 
of  expression.  The  words  of  a  language,  as  terms  of 
thought,  have  no  fast  limits,  yet  they  remain  none  the 
less  the  sole  media  of  consideration  and  of  statement. 

So  closely  is  the  mind  of  man  in  its  average  activity 
bound  to  this  idea  of  personality  that  there  is  no  religion, 
as  an  extended  faith  among  men,  without  it.  It  may  be 
obscured  and  modified,  but  is  never  wholly  repressed. 
If  it  disappears  with  the  few  it  is  likely  to  reappear  in  a 
more  prolific  form  with  the  many.  To  lack  the  notion 
of  personal,  spiritual  agents  is,  to  the  common  mind,  to 
lack  faith.  There,  may  be  a  speculative  term  in  religion, 
as  in  the  religion  of  China  as  derived  from  Confucius, 
which  sets  aside  personality  in  the  controlling  movement 
of  the  universe,  but  a  dogma  of  faith  of  this  order  will 
remain  a  dead  factor  in  the  popular  mind,  provocative 
only  of  unguided  superstitions.  In  narrowing  down 
thought  it  may  exclude  other  conceptions,  but  it  can- 
not have  the  popular  force  of  a  system  of  faith. 

The  ultimate  principle  of  all  existence  is  offered  in 
Confucianism  as  an  impersonal  element.  Negative  and 
undefined  conceptions  of  the  ultimate  necessarily  tend  to 


88  SOCIOLOGY. 

the  impersonal,  as  do  all  conceptions  of  fixed,  necessary 
laws  of  development.  Personality  is  a  very  definite  idea, 
and  carries  with  it  conscious,  free  movement.  The  idea 
of  a  personal  God,  so  native  to  the  human  mind,  returns 
again  and  again  to  the  religion  of  China,  in  this  phase  of 
it,  as  the  real  force  of  this  Ultimate  Principle.  In  propor- 
tion as  the  personality  of  God  becomes  distinct  does  it 
lift  the  individual,  restrain  the  tyranny  of  social  and  relig- 
ious customs,  and  push  aside  superstitions  ;  and  in  the 
degree  in  which  this  supreme  conception,  freeing,  filling 
and  guiding  the  thoughts,  is  wanting,  do  narrow  customs 
and  sporadic  superstitions  come  in  to  take  its  place. 
Thus  in  China  the  tyranny  of  custom  is  extreme,  and 
ancestral  worship  is  the  popular  form  of  piety.  The 
mind  gets  no  rebound  against  the  urgent  force  of  things 
just  at  hand  from  any  scope  of  thought  in  the  spiritual 
world.  A  fatalistic  movement  of  development,  as  an 
explanatory  idea,  shuts  up  society  to  existing  facts. 
There  is  little  pleasure  and  no  power  in  following  such 
a  development  backward  or  forward  ;  the  development 
itself  is  crudely  and  wrongly  conceived,  and  begets  noth- 
ing but  passivity  and  despair.  The  individual  and  society 
are  left  under  the  unrelaxed  grip  of  the  things  pressing 
close  and  hard  upon  them.  The  speculative  mind  re- 
mains torpid  under  the  pressure  of  fatalism,  and  the 
popular  mind  restores,  as  best  it  can,  personality  to  the 
agencies  nearest  it.  Empiricism  sweeps  round  into  credu- 
lity and  stolidity. 

Mr.  Spencer,  in  his  evolution  of  the  religious  idea  and 
of  religious  institutions,  starts  the  movement  in  an  ob- 
scure recognition  by  men  of  their  own  spiritual  nature. 
Doubtless,  in  our  own  spiritual  powers  lies  the  key  of  all 
religious  thought.  The  revelation  of  spiritual  elements 
in  ourselves,  and  their  painful  separation  from  physical 


RELIGION. 


89 


causes,  lead  to  the  religious  interpretation  and  rendering 
of  the  world.  The  great  darkness  and  the  whimsical 
errors  of  this  method  of  thought,  in  its  most  remote 
and  weakest  forms,  no  more  discredit  the  process  as  a 
whole  than  do  any  intellectual  and  social  failures  dis- 
prove the  later  progress  which  springs  from  them.  Fail- 
ure is  the  universal  road  to  success.  This  failure  means 
only  the  narrow  nature  of  the  faculties  we  bring  to  our 
great  task. 

The  great  weakness  of  the  empirical  school,  discussing 
the  origin  of  religion  under  the  notion  of  evolution,  is 
the  supposition  that  barbarous  races  now  stand  for  man 
primeval.  The  error  of  this  conclusion  has  been  clearly 
exposed  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll  in  his  "  Unity  of  Nature." 
These  tribes  are  as  far  off  from  the  beginning  as  the 
most  cultivated  races.  They,  as  well  as  these,  have 
undergone  their  evolution,  only  it  has  been  one  of  deg- 
radation. Historically,  we  find  an  early  and  profound 
tendency,  all  along  the  lines  of  progress,  to  recognize 
one  God.  We  have  not  interested  ourselves  in  tracing 
the  stages  of  decay  in  this  idea,  but  the  process,  and  that 
only,  of  true  evolution.  Everything  tends  to  show  that 
that  process  began  in  a  power  to  lay  hold  of 'and  use  this 
fundamental  idea — a  spiritual  world.  Indeed,  as  this 
is  the  germ  of  the  whole  movement,  there  can  be  no 
evolution  without  it.  All  previous  periods  necessarily 
stand  for  nothing,  as  far  as  religion  is  concerned,  till  the 
sense  of  spiritual  existence  is  present.  Once  present,  this 
conviction  takes  the  range  and  defines  the  range  of  the 
religious  world. 

A  pantheistic  faith  is  the  product  of  speculative 
thought,  and,  so  far  as  it  enters  any  religion,  remains  in 
it  as  an  esoteric  doctrine.  Its  negative  results  may  be 
very  great,  first,  in  leaving  the  unoccupied  popular  mind, 


gO  SOCIOLOGY. 

in  satisfaction  of  its  own  wants,  to  cover  over  the  field  of 
religious  thought  with  a  fantastic  polytheism,  as  in  India  ; 
and,  second,  in  separating  higher  religious  thought  from 
the  popular  faith,  from  sympathy  with  it  or  control  over 
it.  Thus,  as  in  Egypt,  luxuriant  superstition  may  over- 
grow and  smother  a  religion  relatively  simple  and  just  in 
its  best  forms.  Indeed,  theism  has  at  times  been  too 
pure  and  remote  an  idea,  as  in  Judaism,  to  control  the 
general  mind  in  search  of  conceptions  close  at  hand  and 
highly  colored.  Mohammedanism,  uniting  fatalism  with 
theism,  has  turned  the  latter  into  a  dead  core  of  doctrine, 
whose  living  surface  is  made  up  of  gross,  sensual  and 
personal  incentives.  Any  pantheistic  element  like  this 
of  fatalism  at  once  reduces  and  deadens  religious  thought, 
and  leaves  the  ground  of  daily  action  to  be  taken  posses- 
sion of  in  squatter  sovereignty,  by  the  floating  tendencies 
of  the  place  and  time. 

Personality  and  liberty  are  inseparable  in  true  theism. 
Personality  lies  in  reason,  moving  consciously  under  its 
own  law  toward  its  own  ends ;  and  this  also  is  liberty. 
The  thinking  powers  and  the  free  powers  are  the  same. 
The  mind  is  free,  through  and  through,  and  not  in  one 
action  only,  volition.  If,  therefore,  reason  is  ultimate, 
the  inner  force  of  all  development,  then-also  is  this  de- 
velopment one  before  which,  and  with  which,  runs  the 
eye  of  Reason.  Only  as  personality  and  freedom  are 
thoroughly  interlocked  as  one  and  the  same  thing — as 
Reason,  self-comprehending,  self-guided  and  self-sus- 
tained,— have  we  in  the  universe  broad,  clear  light,  which 
excludes  all  the  fantastic  creations  of  darkness,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  makes  the  mind  of  each  man  a  full,  inter 
ested  and  personal  partaker  in  these  spiritual  terms  of 
life  which  enclose  him.  As  we  lose  freedom  in  the  cos- 
mos we  lose  personality ;  and  as  we  lose  personality  our 


RELIGION.  9I 

own  lives  shrink  up,  and  draw  together,  and  the  influ- 
ences which  still  touch  them  take  on  a  superstitious  form. 
Under  fatalism,  the  only  refuge  from  superstition  is  cold 
thought  or  one  or  other  of  the  inconsistencies  of  specu- 
lation. With  the  first  the  popular  mind  has  no  sym- 
pathy, and  of  the  second  it  is  incapable. 

Unity  and  personality  are  inseparable.  The  only  unity 
is  that  of  thought,  and  thought  in  its  extension  is,  and 
must  be,  increasingly  one.  This  unity  is  its  supreme 
bent.  Reason  only  discloses  itself  in  reasons  by  a  univer- 
sal reconciliation  of  all  its  material. 

§  4.  The  third  gain  in  the  onward  theistic  movement 
of  the  human  mind  is  that  of  complete,  universal,  infinite 
wisdom.  Wisdom  and  personality,  as  explanatory  ideas, 
grow  together.  The  wise  combination  implies  wisdom 
in  the  ultimate  agent,  and  wisdom,  as  a  constructive 
process  of  thought,  is  complete  within  itself.  Wisdom  is 
the  germinal  centre  and  power  of  personality.  Wisdom 
that  is  not  self-directed  is  a  fragmentary  and  incongruous 
idea;  as  incongruous  as  light  without  disclosure,  or  noise 
without  sound.  Personality  and  wisdom  are  lost  together 
in  pantheism.  The  agent  is  identified  with  the  activity  ; 
wisdom  slips  into,  and  is  swallowed  up  in,  its  products. 
Phenomena  extinguish  the  underlying  noumena,  the  es- 
sential being  for  which  they  must  always  stand  in  any 
rational  process.  When  a  religion  sinks  on  its  specula- 
tive side  into  pantheism,  as  did  Brahmanism,  it  collapses 
into  idolatry  on  its  popular  side.  The  popular  mind,  not 
sufficiently  nourished  by  a  pantheism  from  which  the  em- 
pirical term  of  wisdom  has  been  eliminated,  immediately 
gains  new  centres  of  thought  and  feeling  by  a  polythe- 
istic hierarchy.  While  speculation  recedes  from  theism 
in  one  direction,  the  popular  mind  retires  in  the  opposite 
direction,  each  in  satisfaction  of  a  distinct  tendency. 


g2  SOCIOLOGY. 

The  only  idea  that  can  bring  the  two  moieties  together  is 
that  of  Supreme  Wisdom. 

The  wisdom  of  God,  which  is  the  effulgence  and  ful- 
ness of  his  personality,  is  helped  as  a  belief  by  the  prog- 
ress of  knowledge.  Science  plants  the  terms  of  order 
deeper  and  deeper  in  matter,  and  the  conviction  arises 
and  is  confirmed  that  there  are  in  the  universe,  as  a  con- 
structive product,  no  unoccupied  spaces  ;  that  order,  com- 
bination, adjustment  are  universal  and  complete.  Faith 
thus  receives  a  double  impulse,  first,  from  the  coherence 
within  itself  of  the  rational  idea  of  God,  under  which,  as 
ultimate,  he  is  also  regarded  as  infinite,  all  comprehen- 
sive ;  and  second,  from  the  tendency  of  induction,  under 
a  growing  experience,  to  affirm  that  that  order  which 
everywhere  meets  us  is  omnipresent.  All  movements  of 
thought  concur  in  bringing  the  mind  to  rest  in  the  notion 
of  Infinite  Wisdom,  and  the  facts  which  remain  as.  yet 
unreconciled  with  it  become  nothing  more  than  the  out- 
standing limits  of  knowledge.  That  conception  which 
gives  completion  to  the  rational  movement  is  no  less 
essential  to  empirical  inquiry  than  to  abstract  thought. 
Indeed,  it  is  the  unity  of  these  two,  the  speculative  and 
the  practical,  in  one  conclusion,  that  alone  satisfies  the 
mind. 

§  5.  With  wisdom  follows  goodness,  as  a  divine  con- 
stituent. As  soon  as  wisdom  passes  into  the  ethical  re- 
gion, and  claims  it  also  as  wholly  its  own,  complete  good- 
ness must  be  recognized  as  the  accompaniment  of  com- 
plete wisdom.  Goodness  expresses  obedience  to  the 
moral  law,  the  law  of  the  spiritual  realm,  and  the  wisdom 
which  discloses  the  law  discloses  all  the  terms  and  incen- 
tives of  obedience.  Complete  wisdom  without  complete 
goodness  is  an  incongruous  idea,  as  they  both  apply  in  the 
spiritual  world  to  exactly  the  same  relations,  and  are 


RELIGION.  93 

simply  intellectual  and  emotional  sides  of  the  same  activ- 
ity. The  intellectual  and  emotional  elements  must  con- 
cur in  spiritual  life.  Not  to  feel  is  not  to  understand, 
and  not  to  understand  is  not  to  feel.  Life  is  one. 

If  the  conception  of  God  falls  off  from  instant,  active, 
flexible  wisdom,  the  government  of  God  will  fall  off  from 
complete  grace.  Thus  in  Mohammedanism  the  wisdom 
of  God  being  restricted  to  fixed,  fatalistic  laws,  the  grace 
of  God  is  made  consistent  with  arbitrary  inclusions  and 
exclusions.  The  love  of  Christ  is  the  outgrowth  of  the 
present,  perfect,  spiritual — that  is,  flexible — wisdom  of 
God.  God  can  love  and  be  moved  by  his  love,  and  finds 
no  obstacle  to  his  love. 

The  ethical  realm  is  the  last  one  to  be  thoroughly  oc- 
cupied by  human  thought,  and  so  its  facts  remain  the 
longest  unharmonized.  The  partially  apprehended  facts 
of  our  moral  life. linger  on  unreconciled  with  the  grace  of 
God.  The  insight  of  devout  minds,  the  experience  of 
devout  lives,  sociology,  human  experience  in  its  opening 
terms,  unite  to  carry  our  faith  over  to  the  dogma  of 
complete  goodness.  Faith  here  as  elsewhere  is  a  kind  of 
spiritual  revelation.  From  many  examples  of  divine 
favor,  from  many  wiser  interpretations  of  things  in  them- 
selves not  manifestly  merciful,  we  pass  on  to  the  broad, 
all-inclusive  induction  of  complete  goodness.  Thus  in 
science  we  infer  from  a  comparatively  small  portion  of 
the  great  aggregate  of  facts  the  universality  of  law. 
Faith  and  science  have  one  basis,  a  belief  in  the  infinite 
extension  of  constructive  principles. 

§  6.  The  wisdom  and  grace  of  God  are  the  form  and 
substance  of  His  personality,  and  in  their  inward  harmony 
and  outward  force  is  found  the  harmony  of  the  universe. 
This  unity  must  complete  itself  in  the  farther  conception 
of  the  omnipresence  of  God.  Unity  must  carry  with  it 


94  SOCIOLOGY. 

omniscience,  omnipotence,  summed  up  in  omnipresence. 
Any  deficiency  in  this  attribute  would  at  once  endanger 
the  unity.  Omnipresence  is  the  form  which  the  concep- 
tion slowly  takes.  It  is  the  fulness  of  omniscience  and 
omnipotence,  and  this  presence  becomes  increasingly 
spiritual,  a  Holy  Spirit. 

As  long  as  matter  is  thought  of  as  relatively  inert  ma- 
terial to  be  wrought  into  form  by  an  external  agent,  the 
conception  of  omnipresence  is  peculiarly  difficult.  Mat- 
ter itself,  as  a  lump  unleavened  by  reason,  seems  to  ex- 
clude reason,  and  there  are  no  other  modes  of  action 
which  express  omnipresence,  and  bear  witness  to  it.  A 
first  result  of  this  idea  and  doctrine  is  very  likely  to  be 
pantheism.  Matter  itself,  the  all  in  all,  is  God.  In  no 
other  way  is  his  complete  presence  recognized.  But  this 
view  is  only  one  of  those  ways  in  which  the  mind,  for  a 
brief  period,  loses  in  one  direction  one  of  those  dual 
terms  which  condition  successful  thought.  Phenomena 
can  only  be  understood  with  and  by  noumena,  effects 
through  and  under  causes,  actions  in  and  with  agents,  the 
sensible  universe  as  the  concomitant  and  expression  of 
Creative  Intelligence.  Omit  one  of  these  terms,  and 
thought  is  immediately  crippled.  The  final  issue  of 
every  such  effort  is  phenomenalism,  nihilism,  the  accept- 
ance of  impressions  stripped  of  their  significant  force, 
their  interpreting  ideas  and  conditions.  The  practical  re- 
sult is  that  the  great  mass  of  mind,  the  popular  mind, 
refuses  to  follow  the  movement,  and  returns  to  grope  on 
its  way  darkly  in  the  old  paths  of  thought. 

When  matter  is  seen  to  be  not  inert  but  active,  not  a 
permanent  but  an  ever  changing  expression  of  power  ; 
that  every  form  of  matter  is  what  it  is  by  virtue  of  shift- 
ing relations  to  other  forms  of  matter  of  which  it  is  in 
constant  recognition ;  when  matter  is  known  as  fixed  in 


RELIGION. 


95 


its  laws  and  circuits  of  movement,  but  with  no  fixedness 
of  states  and  properties,  no  inertness  or  deadness  of  be- 
ing, then  the  omnipresence  of  God  becomes,  as  it  were, 
a  necessity  of  thought.  Reason  permeates  matter  in 
every  portion  of  it.  There  is  no  property,  action,  rela- 
tion, which  is  not  thoroughly  rational,  thoroughly  at  one 
with  the  great  aggregate  which  constitutes  the  universe, 
and  which  is  transparent  to  thought  everywhere.  Even 
more  than  this,  as  every  atom  of  matter  stands,  as  it 
were,  in  perceptive  relation  to  every  other  atom,  putting 
itself  forth  at  once  in  fitting  activity  toward  it,  and  shift- 
ing its  own  action  under  it,  we  are  compelled  to  include 
the  universe  in  one  all-embracing  consciousness.  In  this 
abide  its  unity  and  its  life.  Thus  in  so  simple  a  force 
as  gravitation,  the  amount  and  relative  position  of  every 
special  part  of  the  material  world  are  known  to  every 
other  part,  and  all  parts  embrace  each  other  with  ever 
changing,  but  undying,  energy. 

Science  has  greatly  strengthened  this  demand  for  the 
omnipresence  of  reason,  and  we  must  now  admit  it,  or 
allow  the  most  significant  fact  of  the  universe,  the  fact 
that  it  is  a  universe,  to  pass  by  as  unexplained.  Perfect 
reason  is  the  demand  of  reason.  Reason  extends  its  con- 
quest from  point  to  point,  over  field  after  field,  and 
makes  each  new  acquisition  an  occasion  for  the  next. 
Science  sustains  this  inner  coherence  and  irrepressible 
extension  of  reason,  and  the  conception  which  completes 
it  is  that  of  Omnipresent  Reason.  Wherever  matter  is 
there  also  is  mind,  as  the  underlying  ground  of  its  orderly 
action— we  may  as  well  say  of  its  action,  as  there  is  no 
action  in  it  which  is  not  orderly.  We  thus  learn  em- 
pirically as  well  as  rationally  to  identify  in  mind  these 
two  terms,  action  and  order,  each  co-extensive  with  the 
other.  We  surmount  the  stumbling-block  of  our  own 


g6  SOCIOLOGY. 

experience,  in  which  we  encounter  so  much  action  not 
our  own,  and  out  of  immediate  relation  to  our  purposes, 
and  learn  at  length  to  find  this  living  term  of  rational 
energy  occupying  the  whole  universe.  Material  exist- 
ence which  spreads  through  the  universe,  which  consti- 
tutes its  most  obtrusive  term,  which  gives  the  condition 
of  all  life,  is  itself  omnipresent  reason,  rising  in  the  light, 
into  its  own  light,  and  into  light  for  all  finite  intelli- 
gence. Where  matter  is  there  must  be  mind,  for  matter 
is  energy  unfolding  itself  in  a  circuit  of  fixed  relations 
suitable  to  the  ministrations  of  mind  ;  is  thought,  wis- 
dom, written  at  full. 

§  7.  The  supernatural  has  been  a  constant,  and  in  some 
of  its  forms  a  greatly  exaggerated,  term  in  religion.  It 
has  been  near  the  eye,  and  has  concealed  much  larger 
things  remote  from  the  eye.  It  has  called  for  continual 
reduction  under  a  deeper,  wider  perspective  The  pop- 
ular mind,  and  still  more  the  popular  heart,  have  held 
fast  this  element.  We  not  only  have  great  faith  in  the 
ever  returning  convictions  of  the  popular  mind  and  heart, 
we  regard  them  as  laying  down  the  trend  of  human 
thought,  as  giving  the  very  facts  philosophy  is  to  explain, 
as  offering  the  substance  of  knowledge,  brought  to  the 
surface  in  the  process  of  spiritual  evolution.  He  who 
strives  to  overlook  them,  deny  them,  or  reverse  them,  is 
struggling  away  from  the  truly  cosmic  forces  which  have 
unfolded  them ;  is,  having  reached  the  air  and  the  light, 
like  a  bewildered  diver,  plunging  again  into  the  fatal 
depths  of  the  sea. 

The  reason  why  the  supernatural  has  suffered  exaggera- 
tion and  distention  in  religion  is  plain.  It  is  because  the 
natural  and  the  supernatural  have  not  been  rightly  con- 
ceived, or  sharply  separated  ;  and  because  the  personal 
element,  which  is  the  centre  of  religious  thought,  has 


RELIGION.  97 

been  closely  associated  with  an  arbitrary  form  of  the 
supernatural.  As  long  as  matter  is  looked  on  as  in  a 
degree  alien  to  God,  the  laws  which  rule  in  it  will  be  con- 
ceived as  more  or  less  antagonistic  to  his  immediate 
pleasure ;  and  the  presence  of  God,  as  the  ruling  idea  in 
religion,  will  declare  itself  in  a  supernatural  made  up  of 
miracles,  in  bending  a  stubborn,  resistful  natural  to  his 
will. 

When,  however,  the  natural  is  justly  regarded  as  the 
fulness  of  reason,  as  equally  near  to  God  as  the  super- 
natural, the  balance  between  the  two  will  be  altered,  and 
religion  will  accept  them  both  as  right  and  left  hand 
movements  of  the  same  process,  as  mind  fully  declared 
and  mind  now  declaring  itself.  A  philosophy  that  ac- 
cepts the  essential  spontaneity  of  mind,  that  conceives 
reason  as  ordering  its  action  in  its  own  light,  as  defining 
for  itself  its  object,  truth,  and  the  means  by  which  it  is 
to  be  reached  ;  a  philosophy  that  believes  the  intellectual 
universe,  the  universe,  to  be  an  ever  renewed,  genetic 
process  immediately  ordered  and  sustained  within  itself 
by  a  living  Presence,  will  recognize  the  supernatural  as 
an  essential  element  in  life  as  well  as  in  religion,  a  part 
of  the  cosmic  creation  going  on  about  us.  To  return  to 
the  figure  already  used,  the  natural  is  only  the  full-faced 
letters  in  which  the  supernatural  has  been  written  out. 
The  omnipresent  Reason  is  always,  like  the  rapid  hand  of 
a  writer,  moving  at  the  head  of  these  cosmic  sentences, 
and  flashing,  by  additional  words,  new  light  through  their 
entire  length. 

It  may  be  easily  said  that  this  is  figure  and  fancy,  and 
the  divine  hand,  if  such  it  be,  writes  fixedly  as  under  the 
dictation  of  nature  ;  and  that  what  it  writes  falls  back 
into  nature,  a  part  of  her  eternal  book.  How  exactly, 
then,  is  this  process  of  cosmic  movement  to  be  rationally 
7 


98 


SOCIOLOGY. 


conceived  ?  Rationally,  we  say,  for  all  interpretation  is 
that  of  reason,  and  what  we  think  we  know  about  nature 
is  only  what  our  own  nature  finds  coherent  in  it.  The 
meaning  we  read  into  it,  or  read  out  of  it,  is  the  meaning 
in  our  own  minds.  What  then  is  'the  deepest,  most 
rational  meaning  in  the  universe  ?  When  we  translate 
the  universe,  as  we  translate  a  Shakespearean  drama,  into 
sense,  what  is  that  sense,  that  ultimate  thought  of  reason 
which  stands  with  us,  at  least  for  the  time  being,  for  the 
Divine  Reason? 

We  may,  impressed  by  the  steadfastness  of  physical 
laws,  allow  them  to  become  for  us  the  full  type  of  the 
Divine  Reason.  We  may  regard  the  entire  inflow  of  the 
spiritual  world  as  fixed  in  its  directions  and  settled  in  its 
conditions,  as  we  have  found,  or  think  we  have  found, 
the  physical  world  to  be.  Even  then  we  should  remem- 
ber that  this  conviction  of  the  unchangeableness  of  law 
is  simply  one  of  reason.  It  is  on  grounds  of  reason  that 
we  assert  it,  not  of  knowledge.  Not  one  event  in  ten 
thousand  of  those  we  include  under  physical  laws  is 
known  by  us  to  have  conformed  to  those  laws,  and  the 
conformity  we  have  observed  is  rarely  complete,  as  far  as 
observation  goes.  We  infer  universal  obedience  from  par- 
tial obedience,  and  simply  because  our  own  reason  is  best 
met  by  this  inference.  The  dogma  of  universal  law  itself 
rests  for  authority  on  the  reason. 

Let  us  then  the  more  boldly  consider  the  rational 
completeness  of  this  view  by  which  we  regard  all  the 
action  of  the  Divine  Mind  as  embraced  under  laws  of 
the  fixed  character  of  those  of  the  physical  world.  In 
the  first  place,  we  misconceive  these  physical  laws  them- 
selves, when  we  do  not  allow  them  to  take  on  and  take 
up  new  results.  The  universe  has  been  built  up  to  its 
present  beauty  by  manifest  increments.  Of  these  incre- 


RELIGION.  op 

ments  life  in  all  its  varieties  is  the  best  example.  If  we 
undertake  to  say  that  the  present  life  of  our  globe  was 
included  in  the  nebulous  state  of  the  solar  system,  we 
put  our  opinions  totally  beyond  any  confirmation  of 
experience,  or  intrinsic  probability,  or  known  possibility. 
Physical  laws  themselves  are  apparently  handled  in  refer- 
ence to  supernatural  intervention.  Neither  life  nor  any 
new  form  of  life  is  explained  by  the  terms  which  go  be- 
fore it.  To  deny  additions  is  to  judge  the  universe  by 
narrow  spaces  and  periods,  and  not  by  comprehensive 
ones ;  by  obscure  processes,  and  not  by  plain  results. 

If  there  is  any  one  principle  which  we  are  learning 
more  and  more  to  accept,  it  is  that  every  moment  in  time 
stands  for  every  other  moment  in  the  general  character 
of  the  forces  at  work  and  in  the  methods  employed.  It 
is  under  this  idea  that  geology,  as  a  science,  has  reached 
its  present  proportions.  But  the  conception  of  first 
terms  and  fixed  laws  embracing  all  subsequent  events,  is 
as  completely  at  war  with  this  principle  as  any  idea  well 
could  be.  At  some  one  time,  wholly  distinct  from  all 
other  times,  reason,  creative  reason,  was  prevalent ;  but 
since  then  all  its  powers  have  been  in  suspension.  We 
should  rather  regard  every  moment  as  creative,  and  no 
moment  as  pre-eminently  and  exclusively  so.  The  Di- 
vine Reason,  in  the  full  circle  of  its  activities  and  suscep- 
tibilities, is  now  as  hitherto,  in  the  present  as  in  the  past, 
borne  on  by  the  full  flood  of  being.  To  condition  the 
present  to  a  remote  past,  to  bind  it  over  under  a  finished 
creation  to  issues  long  since  made  up,  is  to  lose  the 
omnipresence  of  God  in  time,  and  so  to  lose  the  univer- 
sality of  Reason,  its  immediate  and  self-centred  life. 

While  reason  is  perfectly  fixed,  it  is  also  infinitely  flex- 
ible. It  encloses  within  itself  both  of  these  qualities.  A 
change  without  occasion  is  no  more  unreasonable  than  a 


I00  SOCIOLOGY. 

failure  to  change  on  occasion.  The  wants  of  men,  the 
wishes  of  men,  the  personal  elements  in  them,  demand 
flexibility  in  the  Divine  Mind  and  mobility  in  the  Divine 
Heart.  There  could  be  in  the  moral,  spiritual  world  no 
greater  incongruity,  no  more  unfitting  relation,  than  a 
sensitive  soul,  like  man's,  enclosed  in  walls  of  adamant, 
and  bound  down  under  chains  of  iron.  This  is  to  be 
buried  alive.  As  personal  and  free,  he  must  be  wrapped 
about  by  personality  and  freedom.  The  arms  of  the 
mother  are  the  only  suitable  enclosure  of  the  nestling 
child ;  the  arms  of  God,  of  the  sons  of  God. 

To  bind  over  mind  to  matter,  the  emotional  and  flexi- 
ble in  spiritual  life  to  that  which  simply  is,  is  to  bow 
superior  issues  to  inferior  ones  ;  is  to  raise  a  frame-work 
and  provide  no  vine  to  cover  it  with  leaf  and  flower  ;  is 
to  build  a  home  with  no  household,  no  domestic  art,  no 
loving  experiences,  no  upward  bending  impulses. 

If  we  make  mind,  moving  in  its  own  light  toward  its 
own  ends,  creative  and  free, — and  if  we  do  not,  thought 
drops  dead  like  a  bird  shot  in  mid-air — then  the  world 
must  stand  in  sympathy  with  it,  and  must  contain  a  free 
as  well  as  a  necessary,  a  supernatural  as  well  as  a  natural, 
element.  While  the  natural  is  fixed,  the  supernatural  is 
flexible  under  the  instant  pressure  of  throbbing,  spiritual 
life.  No  life  shaping  itself  within  itself  under  the  true 
toward  the  good,  can  fail  to  wish  and  to  demand  that  the 
universe  shall  be  in  sympathy  with  this  movement,  and 
subject  to  the  progressive  changes  involved  in  it.  This 
is  harmony;  and  a  Heart  of  Reason  that  did  not  feel  the 
omnipresent,  eternal  movements  of  reason  and  righteous- 
ness in  all  its  offspring  would  thereby  deny  its  own  exist- 
ence. 

If,  thus,  we  conceive  the  universe  as  each  instant  the 
present  term  of  the  Divine  activity,  the  immediate  ful- 


RELIGION.  IOI 

ness  of  the  Divine  reason  and  love,  taking  form  and  force 
afresh  from  the  Divine  life,  we  can  easily  retain  in  it,  nay, 
we  must  retain  in  it,  both  the  fixed  and  the  flexible,  the 
coherence  and  the  spontaneity  of  reason  in  its  perpetual 
unfolding.  Prayer  becomes  as  just  and  as  efficacious  as 
it  is  inevitable.  Prayer  gives  to  Reason  new  terms,  and 
is  followed  by  new  adjustments. 

The  popular  mind  holds  fast  the  truth,  not  by  virtue 
of  superior  insight,  but  by  virtue  of  lying  more  passively 
on  the  stream  of  forces  actually  flowing  on  in  the  world. 
These  instant  forces  are  felt,  not  smothered  ;  obeyed, 
not  reasoned  out  of  existence  ;  and  so  the  inner,  actual 
life  takes  on  new  varieties,  and  slowly  passes  up  into 
higher  and  holier  adjustments.  There  may  be  a  phase 
of  vegetation  in  the  process,  but  it  is  spiritual  vegetation 
after  all ;  it  is  not  a  premature  running  to  seed  in  fruit- 
less speculation. 

As  rightly  conceived,  the  natural  and  the  supernatural 
flow  into  each  other  and  out  of  each  other  as  easily  and 
as  harmoniously  as  do  the  living  processes,  the  chemical 
processes,  the  mechanical  processes,  in  the  body  of  man  ; 
or  as  do  the  voluntary  and  the  automatic  life  in  his 
hourly  action.  Constructed  as  we  are  of  so  many  ele- 
ments and  under  so  many  laws,  we  ought  to  feel  it  pos- 
sible that  the  higher  should  lift  the  lower  into  its  own 
service  ;  that  they  should  live  together  without  conflict, 
and  move  together  without  obstruction,  and  thrive  to- 
gether on  terms  which  underlie  and  support  human  wis- 
dom and  virtue. 

Though  the  supernatural  has  often  overgrown  itself, 
and  smothered  its  own  fruit  like  a  rampant  vine,  it  al- 
ways has  been  and  always  will  be  the  very  breath  of 
life  in  religion.  We  live  and  move  and  have  our  being 
in  God,  not  as  Creator  in  ages  gonelwybiU^as  the  im- 

LI§R|%S 

.  Of    THf  \ 

UNIVERSITY  } 

C4/  Kfiittttk^r 


I02  SOCIOLOGY. 

mediate  force  and  fulness  of  all  events.  Law  is  the  pres- 
ent will  of  God,  and  so  also  are  all  enlargements  beyond 
law  The  measured  throb  of  the  pulse  and  its  passionate 
beating  are  one  and  the  same  process.  If  this  concep- 
tion of  the  Divine  Presence  meets  the  reason  most  fully, 
then  it  is  the  most  valid,  the  most  certain  conception. 
There  is  no  other  test  of  validity. 

§  8.  A  belief  in  the  future  life  of  man  grows  immedi- 
ately out  of  a  belief  in  his  present  spiritual  existence. 
The  spiritual  idea  which  most  directly  impresses  itself 
on  the  minds  of  men  is  that  of  their  own  supersensible 
being.  Hence  the  invisible  world  that  in  rude  periods 
and  races  crowds  close  about  the  thoughts  of  men  is  that 
of  departed  friends  and  dead  enemies.  Immortality  is 
not  always  associated  with  life  after  death.  The  con- 
ception is  too  fatiguing,  the  stretch  of  thought  too  great, 
the  interests  too  remote ;  while  the  primary  idea,  that  of 
life  following  immediately  upon  death,  is  vividly  present. 
Then  spiritual  conceptions  are  not,  of  course,  consistently 
held,  much  less  clearly  expressed.  The  expression  is 
more  or  less  contradictory.  No  coherent  method  of 
putting  supersensible  impressions  is  open  to  the  mind. 
Physical  images  and  spiritual  ideas  are  hopelessly  com- 
mingled. But  we  are  not  to  infer  from  the  physical 
factors  admitted  into  the  conception  of  a  life  prolonged 
beyond  the  grave  that  those  who  so  speak  and  act  are 
bound  in  thought  to  the  very  terms  under  which  they 
have  framed  their  conduct.  Such  a  conclusion  is  always 
inadmissible  in  spiritual  truths.  The  mind  must  do  the 
best  it  can.  It  must  get  footing  in  speech,  and,  in  ac- 
complishing this,  will  encounter  many  inconsistencies 
only  partly  felt  by  it,  and  partly  overcome.  In  all  these 
cases,  the  safer  interpretation  is  that  the  higher  element 
is  present  and  not  yet  able  to  exclude  the  lower  one, 


RELIGION.  I0~ 

than  that  the  lower  one  measures  the  higher  one.  The 
two  exist  together  in  a  confused  way,  the  fetich  and  the 
agency  it  represents,  the  idol  and  the  deity  it  stands  for. 
When  the  implements  and  arms  of  a  dead  chieftain  are 
sent  after  him  by  being  burned,  there  are  an  affirmation 
and  its  contradiction  in  the  same  act.  A  life  like  his 
former  one  is  asserted,  and  yet  the  destruction  of  these 
possessions  distinctly  rejects  the  notion  that  this  like- 
ness is  complete.  When  food  is  provided  for  the  dead, 
the  continuity  of  experience  here  and  hereafter  is  main- 
tained ;  but  when  the  faith  in  the  offering  remains  the 
same,  though  the  dead  never  return  to  accept  it,  we  see 
at  once  that  the  mind  of  the  giver  is  not  dealing  with  or- 
dinary conceptions  under  the  usual  coherence  of  thought. 
The  same  conclusions  are  not  drawn  as  would  be  drawn 
from  the  actions  of  living  men.  These  inconsistencies 
arise  from  the  inability  of  the  mind  to  clear  itself,  to 
reach  at  a  bound  adequate  conceptions  and  expressions  of 
a  supersensible  fact ;  and  they  do  not  carry  with  them 
either  the  dulness  or  the  contradiction  that  lie  on  the 
face  of  them. 

It  is  plain,  I  think,  that  we  are  not  to  regard  the 
human  mind  as  slowly  gaining  a  new  idea  in  this  process 
of  interpretation,  but  as  coming  to  the  full  possession  of 
one  that  always  haunts  it  as  a  term  in  its  inevitable  in- 
sights. The  movement  is  one  in  which  old  thoughts  are 
releasing  themselves  and  confusion  is  cleared  away  ;  not 
one  in  which  a  modicum  of  knowledge  is  being  made  up 
by  the  slow  additions  of  experience.  Sensuous  expe- 
rience contradicts  from  the  very  outset  all  the  physical 
agencies  and  images  involved  in  the  evolution  of  spirit- 
ual ideas.  A  sober  rendering  of  experience,  without 
fear  and  without  hope,  with  no  prepossessions,  would 
steadily  dispel  any  illusions  of  another  life.  Indeed, 


104 


SOCIOLOGY. 


there  is  nothing  in  experience  ever  to  have  given  rise  to 
them.  Dreams,  no  more  than  waking  reveries,  imply  a 
double  self.  This  double  being,  soul  and  body,  is  an 
explanatory  doctrine  applicable  to  all  our  hours,  waking 
and  sleeping.  That  the  mind  grows  in  its  spiritual  con- 
victions in  spite  of  the  constant  contradiction  of  the 
senses,  shows  that  these  convictions  have  never  arisen 
from  the  senses. 

If  the  idea  of  our  own  spiritual  life  first  gives  to  us  the 
notion  of  a  spiritual  world,  well  filled  with  life,  it  therein 
prepares  the  way  at  once  for  polytheism,  and  by  the  devel- 
opment of  polytheism,  for  theism.  The  doctrine  of  a 
future  life  passes  by  a  like  process  into  that  of  immortal- 
ity. These  two,  theism  and  immortality,  are  inseparably 
associated.  We  lay  hold  of  a  large  invisible  life  through 
our  own  invisible  life,  and  when  this  all-embracing  life 
has  become  for  us  truly  Divine,  we  have  begun  fully 
to  share  it.  We  believe  in  immortality  because  we  be- 
lieve in  God.  It  is  the  coherence  of  reason,  the  conti- 
nuity of  wisdom,  the  constancy  of  grace,  that  assure  us 
of  immortality.  In  sharing  even  for  an  instant  the 
Divine  Life,  we  come  to  possess  it,  and  to  be  possessed 
of  it.  We  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in  God, 
and  this  is  immortality. 

§  9.  We  have  sufficiently  traced  the  dependence  of 
fundamental  religious  ideas  to  see  that  many  stages  and 
long  stretches  of  development  belong  to  them.  Indeed, 
how  could  it  be  otherwise?  This  continuous  unfolding 
is  of  the  very  essence  of  reason.  One  characteristic  is 
ever  the  same :  an  obscure  insight,  one  not  yet  complete 
in  its  terms  or  its  limits,  goes  before  the  rational  move- 
ment, and  gives  it  direction  and  safety.  It  is  in  spiritual 
as  in  physical  things,  the  circle  of  distinct  vision  is  in- 


RELIGION.  I05 

eluded  in  a  much  larger  one  of  indistinct  vision.  Sight 
runs  before  knowledge. 

This  primary  insight,  which  we  have  insisted  on  in 
individual  development,  belongs  equally  to  collective 
progress.  The  movement  in  religious  thought  is  usually 
one  of  rapid  ascension  under  the  penetrative  force  of 
one  or  more  minds.  A  Zoroaster  or  a  Plato  lifts  a  race 
to  a  new  elevation,  from  which  it  slowly  declines.  All 
conditions — conditions  deeply  hidden,  it  is  true,  in  the 
popular  mind — favoring  the  prophet  of  truth  being  pres- 
ent, the  minds  of  men  become  buoyant,  rapidly  rise  into 
new  altitudes  and  turn  into  immediate  momentum  the 
slow  gains  of  past  experience.  This  impulse  expended, 
the  inertia  of  mind  and  the  reaction  of  opposed  tenden- 
cies show  themselves,  the  conflicting  forces  of  a  sensuous 
experience  re-assert  themselves,  and  society  sinks  again 
earthward  under  this  steady  gravitation. 

If  we  look  over  the  world  as  we  now  find  it,  we  are  by 
no  means  at  liberty  to  affirm  or  to  think  that  the  lowest 
races,  those  most  destitute  of  spiritual  ideas,  necessarily 
stand  for  the  earliest  terms  in  religious  development. 
They  may  equally  well,  and  often  do,  stand  for  the  con- 
tinuous defeat,  degradation  and  degeneration  which 
attend  on  the  beating  back  of  spiritual  tendencies.  No 
nation  moves  forward  in  civilization  without  leaving 
behind  a  large  percentage  of  citizens  who  lose  rather 
than  gain  by  the  general  advance.  There  is  much  rela- 
tively dead  material,  which  is  cast  out  by  growth,  and  it 
is  the  lowest  classes  in  the  most  enlightened  nations  that 
touch  bottom  in  human  degeneracy.  In  the  joint  prog- 
ress of  nations  the  same  thing  is  true.  The  strength  of 
the  strong  is  achieved,  in  part  at  least,  at  the  cost  of  the 
greater  weakness  of  the  weak.  Decline  accelerates  itself ; 
and  those  tribes  who  have  wandered  into  remote  and 


I06  SOCIOLOGY. 

isolated  and  sterile  portions  of  the  earth,  or  who  have 
been  driven  thither,  suffer  constant  decay  in  the  inner 
tone  and  outer  form  of  life. 

As  far  as  the  principles  involved  in  evolution  are  con- 
cerned, it  is  safer  to  judge  all  times  by  historical  times 
than  it  is  to  judge  them  by  the  comparative  data  offered 
by  existing  facts.  In  the  one  case,  we  have  a  longi- 
tudinal section,  a  profile  projection  of  the  actual  path  of 
growth.  If  it  is  a  brief  one,  it  is  a  comparatively  clear 
one,  and  may  help  us  to  the  fundamental  methods  in- 
volved in  the  movement.  Any  line,  on  the  other  hand, 
drawn  in  the  present  between  points  of  light  and  points 
of  darkness,  any  linear  arrangement  of  the  low  and  the 
high  in  existing  civilization,  has  never  been  a  portion  of 
the  way  actually  travelled  by  mankind  in  its  spiritual 
migrations,  and  may  involve  other  principles  than  those 
of  growth.  The  inner  laws  of  the  upward  movement 
in  religious  thought  are  not  to  be  settled  by  comparative 
theology,  based  on  the  mixed,  remote,  complicated  facts 
of  the  present  hour.  The  time,  place  and  circumstances 
of  the  impact  of  truth  on  the  minds  of  men  are  of  quite 
as  much  moment  as  is  the  logical  coherence  of  truth. 
We  can  no  more  draw  a  line  in  the  experience  of  the 
race  from  its  lowest  to  its  highest  attainments  in  any 
department  of  inquiry,  and  compel  events  historically  to 
accept  in  order  each  successive  stage,  than  we  can  pass 
from  the  lowest  point  on  the  earth's  surface  to  the  high- 
est with  steady  ascent ;  or  affirm  that  the  lower  and  the 
higher  elevations  have  any  fixed  relations  to  each  other 
in  time.  Mountain  ranges  reach  their  culmination  by 
successive  ridges  and  valleys,  variously  placed  and  shaped 
at  different  periods ;  and  human  thought  touches  its 
highest  attainments  as  the  fruit  of  many  efforts,  near  and 
remote. 


RELIGION. 

§  10.  In  every  form  of  faith  there  has  always  been  a 
vast  difference  between  the  religion  of  a  few  devout,  pen- 
etrative minds  and  the  religion  of  the  many.  These  few 
have  been  the  soul  of  faith,  though  oftentimes  smoth- 
ered under  doctrines  and  rites  and  customs  as  by  gross 
physical  members.  Tracing  religious  development  his- 
torically, we  find  that  all  great  faiths  have  contained  a 
primitive  and  obscure  element  of  theism,  which  animated 
them  in  their  early  history,  and  has  been  re-animated 
here  and  there  in  their  progress.  As  at  any  one  time 
the  better  thoughts  of  the  more  devout  minds  are  con- 
cealed by  popular  superstitions,  so  the  higher  truths 
which  have  given  a  religion  vigor  in  its  years  of  growth 
are  covered  up  and  lost  in  its  later  years  of  decay.  The 
religions  of  Egypt,  of  China  and  of  Greece,  Brahmanism, 
and  even  the  beliefs  of  comparatively  barbarous  nations, 
show  a  primitive  theism,  usually  hidden  under  idolatry, 
but  occasionally  shining  out  in  prophetic  minds. 

The  powers  of  insight  act  in  men  collectively  much  as 
they  do  in  individuals.  The  intuition  is  a  remote  light 
appearing  through  mist.  It  gives  direction,  but  not  full 
revelation.  The  light  itself  must,  by  its  increased 
intensity  under  a  prolonged  experience,  disperse  the 
mist,  disclose  boundaries,  and  furnish  definition  within 
them.  Interpretation  takes  place,  and  can  only  take 
place,  under  appropriate  ideas;  and  this  interpretation 
must  take  place  many  times  and  from  many  positions 
before  the  facts  subject  to  it  will  be  well  outlined.  The 
intuition  is  applicable  to  the  data,  but  the  data  by  no 
means  disclose  instantly  their  order  under  it.  This  dis- 
closure is  the  result  of  inquiry,  and  may  be  lost  or 
gained  according  to  the  diligence  exercised.  The  obscure 
light  of  ideas  waiting  explicit  and  complete  application, 
goes  before  every  process  of  comprehension  ;  every  popu- 


I0g  SOCIOLOGY. 

lar  movement  is  indebted  to  the  penetration  of  a  few 
leaders  for  this  light  of  ideas. 

Religions,  because  they  are  but  phases  of  insight  and 
faith,  are  open  to  decay,  and,  after  the  earlier  stages  of 
growth,  tend  easily  to  deterioration.  They  exhaust 
themselves  by  using  up  the  intellectual  material  with 
which  the  movement  originated.  A  faith  owes  its  force 
to  certain  dominant  ideas,  partly  active  through  their 
own  strength,  and  partly  in  antagonism  to  other  ideas. 
Thus  Buddhism  arose  as  a  triumph  of  humane  and  sym- 
pathetic impulses  over  the  cruel,  divisive,  ascetic  tenden- 
cies of  Brahmanism.  As  the  spirit  of  the  latter  grew 
directly  from  a  religious  creed,  the  former  rejected  not 
only  this  form  of  faith,  but  all  faith  in  supernatural 
beings. 

Every  creed  is  an  effort  to  set  limits  to  faith,  and  in 
proportion  as  a  creed  is  firmly  developed,  does  it  exclude 
what  it  ought  not  and  include  what  it  ought  not. 
Thought  and  feeling  are  very  active  in  its  formation,  and 
increasingly  inactive  after  its  completion.  Thus  the  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual  force  of  a  religion  is  liable  to  be 
lost  by  the  very  process  which  establishes  and  defines  it. 
It  is  the  development,  the  growth  of  truth,  and  this  only, 
which  can  permanently  fill  and  satisfy  the  mind  and 
heart.  A  religion  must,  therefore,  constantly  stretch 
above  and  beyond  itself,  or  there  comes  a  time  in  which 
it  can  no  longer  meet  the  thoughts  of  men. 

Rites,  also,  are  made  more  rigid,  mechanical  and  bur- 
densome by  organization,  ever  pushing  one  or  another 
point  farther,  ever  supporting  what  has  been  won  by  a 
fresh  effort.  Their  vigor  and  usefulness  are  slowly  ex- 
hausted, and  though  they  may  suffice  for  a  long  time  to 
hold  fast  the  indolent  minds  of  men,  service  under  them 
becomes  a  dull  and  heavy  bondage.  The  bigot,  the  nar- 


RELIGION.  I0g 

row  adherent  of  authority,  in  making  faith  more  rigid, 
lays  it  open  more  completely  to  ultimate  rejection. 
Even  in  Protestant  Churches,  with  which  organization  is 
usually  at  its  lowest  terms,  the  tendency  to  rigidity  is 
proportionate  to  the  explicitness  of  the  creed  and  the 
strength  of  the  ecclesiastical  body.  No  thoughtful  per- 
son can  be  present  in  a  large,  deliberative,  religious  as- 
sembly, and  not  be  struck  at  once  with  the  undue  influ- 
ence which  falls  to  those  who  most  easily  utter  the  shib- 
boleth of  the  sect,  and  the  great  disadvantage  which 
those  suffer  who  have  attained  to  any  unusual  liberty  of 
thought.  Clansmen  of  all  kinds  are  quickly  stirred  by 
their  own  slogan,  and  respond  instinctively  to  it.  A 
church  that  is  thoroughly  organized,  like  the  Catholic 
Church,  is  put  in  possession  of  greatly  increased  power, 
but  is  instantly  limited  in  all  the  terms  of  inner  growth. 
This  kind  of  maturity  is  as  much  the  point  from  which 
decay  dates  in  the  spiritual  world,  as  is  the  completion  of 
growth  in  the  body  of  man.  A  still  more  powerful  cause 
of  decline  in  religion  is  found  in  the  fact  of  a  hierarchy. 
The  priesthood  of  a  faith  come  to  stand  for  the  faith  it- 
self, and  so  the  faith  is  made  to  share  their  fortunes.  A 
religion  is  ordered  in  reference  to  the  interests  of  a  gov- 
erning body  which  it  sustains,  and  which  in  turn  sustains 
it ;  and  so  it  comes  to  have  its  periods  of  strength  and  of 
weakness,  like  a  kingdom  or  a  dynasty.  Under  these 
personal  influences,  both  rites  and  doctrines  are  liable  to 
be  separated  from  spiritual  ideas,  and  even  moral  prin- 
ciples, and  lend  themselves  as  instruments  of  authority. 

Thus  Judaism,  without  abandoning  its  central  idea, 
overlaid  it  with  so  many,  so  burdensome,  so  frivolous 
methods,  and  methods  so  misleading,  as  greatly  to  reduce 
its  value.  It  became  an  instrument  of  immediate  con- 
trol in  the  hands  of  a  dominant  class.  The  early  Chris- 


IIO  SOCIOLOGY. 

tian  Church  passed  into  the  Mediaeval  Church,  and,  in 
the  transition,  turned  faith  into  orthodoxy,  religion  into 
observance,  charity  into  good  works,  and  zeal  into  prop- 
agandism.  Herein  there  was  as  obvious  and  as  steady 
decay  as  was  ever  shown  in  any  faith.  It  arose  from  the 
perverse  tendency  to  refine  on  refinements,  and  to  make 
the  interior  life  minister  to  an  exterior  expression  of 
power ;  the  re-assertion  of  self-interest  against  the  insight 
of  the  soul. 

The  decay  of  religion,  also,  easily  allies  itself  with  the 
growing  weakness  of  a  race  or  a  nation.  Religious 
dihies  sink  into  customs  and  conventional  sentiments, 
and  become  a  part  of  an  extended  social  system,  which 
embraces  the  national  life  and  looks  to  it  for  support. 
This  has  been  pre-eminently  true  in  India,  China,  Japan. 
Religious,  social  and  political  influences  have  all  united 
in  an  intolerable  tyranny  of  custom,  holding  fast  every 
erratic  tendency  from  century  to  century.  It  should  be 
a  first  orifice  of  faith  in  its  unending  growth  of  ideas,  its 
ever  renewed  promises,  to  prevent  this  stagnation  of 
national  life,  and  push  it  forward  in  fresh  attainments. 
Yet  a  faith  that  becomes  wedded  to  persons  and  classes 
and  institutions  may  itself  be  the  most  formidable  bar- 
rier to  progress. 

We  have  in  Greece  a  peculiar  example  of  an  affiliation 
of  religion  with  art.  The  poets  became  the  expounders 
and  prophets  of  faith.  Art  gave  law  to  religion  even 
more  than  religion  to  art.  When  art  began  to  fail,  falling 
off  from  the  purity  and  force  of  its  own  inner  life,  religion 
failed  with  it.  Philosophy  separated  itself  from  religion  ; 
and  even  ethics,  as  in  Stoicism,  held  but  lightly  by  it. 
The  movements  of  change  in  society  and  in  the  nation 
left  art  behind  and  religion  behind,  and  in  so  doing  soon 
ceased  to  have  the  character  of  growth.  The  two  were 


RELIGION.  j  j  j 

so  identified  in  their  outlook  on  the  invisible  that  they 
fell  together. 

§  ii.  James  Freeman  Clarke  in  his  recent  work,  "  Ten 
Great  Religions/'  divides  religions  into  ethnic  and  cath. 
olic.  The  distinction  has  force,  but  not  all  the  force 
it  seems  at  first  to  promise.  The  ethnic  religions  are 
closely  identified  with  particular  races,  are  without  great 
leaders  or  prophets,  and  lay  little  stress  on  moral  princi- 
ples. The  catholic  religions  are  the  reverse  in  each 
particular :  they  are  more  independent  of  races,  they 
owe  their  origin  to  great  prophets,  and  depend  on  funda- 
mental ideas.  Judaism,  Mohammedanism  and  Christian- 
ity are  examples  of  catholic  religions,  and  Brahmanism 
and  the  religions  of  Greece  and  Scandinavia  of  ethnic 
forms  of  faith. 

Without  overlooking  the  reason  of  this  division,  it  is 
plain  that  every  religion  tends  to  become  ethnic,  no 
matter  how  catholic  it  may  have  been  in  its  inception. 
This  assertion  is  included  under  the  law  of  decay  above 
given.  Decay  lies  in  passing  from  the  more  general  to 
the  less  general,  from  principles  to  narrow  methods  under 
them,  from  the  catholic  to  the  ethnic.  Every  religion, 
therefore,  whose  origin  is  lost  in  the  dim  past,  having 
slowly  taken  on  the  characteristics  of  a  single  nation, 
will  offer  itself  as  an  ethnic  religion,  while  those  religions 
which  have  arisen  in  more  recent  periods  will  be  more 
catholic  in  form.  A  religion  in  its  origin,  unless  it  be  a 
secondary  phase  of  an  old  faith,  tends  strongly  to  cath- 
olic characteristics,  and  a  religion  in  its  decline  is  ever 
slipping  into  the  phases  of  national  life  which  belong  to 
the  places  in  which  it  lingers.  Judaism,  notwithstanding 
the  breadth  of  its  fundamental  assertions,  notwithstand- 
ing the  eminence  in  its  history  of  one  man,  slowly  became 
a  very  rigid  ethnic  belief.  If  the  earlier  portion  of  the 


H2  SOCIOLOGY. 

history  of  Judaism  had  been  pushed  back  into  an  obscure 
antiquity,  while  its  later  development  only  covered  the 
historic  period,  few  forms  of  faith  would  be  more  exclu- 
sive, or  bear  stronger  marks  of  the  races  to  which  they 
belonged  than  this.  Mohammedanism,  in  spite  of  the 
breadth  of  its  conquests,  shows  a  decided  affinity  for  the 
Arabic  mind,  and  for  types  of  civilization  allied  to  that 
of  the  Arabs.  Buddhism  started  as  an  exceedingly  cath- 
olic doctrine,  under  a  purely  moral  type,  with  a  single 
great  prophet.  Later,  it  assumed  a  religious  character, 
was  increasingly  subject  to  special  conditions,  and  has 
ended  by  becoming  a  very  definite  phase  of  faith,  with 
strong  local  affinities.  Indeed,  unless  a  religion,  catholic 
in  itself,  becomes  speedily  catholic  in  its  extension,  and 
is  subjected  to  broad,  varied  and  changeable  conditions, 
it  almost  inevitably  takes  upon  itself  some  narrowing 
tendencies,  some  local  influences,  by  which  it  passes  into 
an  ethnic  form. 

Thus  the  Nestorian  Church  and  the  Armenian  Church 
are  straitened  in  many  directions.  The  Greek  Church  and 
the  Latin  Church,  as  the  names  imply,  disclose  this  same 
law.  The  Greek  Church,  pushed  backward  in  its  origin, 
might  easily  be  made  to  present  all  the  features  of  a 
local  and  national  faith.  The  Latin  Church  has  steadily 
lost  its  catholicity,  and,  in  this  decay,  has  shown  an 
affinity  for  the  Latin  races.  This  tendency  would  have 
been  still  stronger,  had  it  not  been  for  the  waves  of  civili- 
zation that  have  beaten  so  long  and  so  hard  on  national 
barriers.  The  most  catholic  phases  of  Protestantism  are 
those  which  offer  the  most  variable  creed  and  the  slight- 
est organization,  as  the  Congregational  Churches. 

When  we  speak  of  the  perfect  catholicity  of  Christian- 
ity, we  cannot  refer  to  any  one  Church,  any  one  phase  it 
has  assumed,  but  to  the  general  and  pervasive  power  of 


RELIGION.  II3 

the  words  of  Christ,  sown  without  dogma,  without  rite, 
and  without  organization  in  the  world.  These  show 
their  catholicity  by  springing  up  afresh  in  many  new 
places,  under  many  new  forms. 

§  12.  All  religion  has  helped  human  thought;  no  re- 
ligion, as  it  actually  offers  itself  in  any  given  place,  serves 
more  than  a  temporary  purpose.  The  human  mind  is 
like  stubborn  soil  that  can  be  brought  into  cultivation 
only  by  being  broken  often  in  many  ways,  subjected  to 
many  forms  of  tillage,  and  made  fertile  by  repeated 
dressings.  The  religious  problem  is  a  collective  one  as 
well  as  an  individual  one.  The  race  has  been  at  it  from 
the  beginning,  and  still  finds  the  same  occasion  for  new 
effort.  What  is  done  in  the  development  and  the  ex- 
haustion of  one  phase  of  thought,  in  one  place  or  in  one 
nation,  is  done,  at  least  partially,  for  other  nations  and 
places.  A  truth  for  a  long  time  transferred  to  action,  an 
error  exhaustively  traced  in  all  its  evil  consequences,  are 
omnipresent  factors  in  human  history,  continental  land- 
marks to  all  races  and  all  times.  Processes  once  fully 
achieved,  need  not  be  indefinitely  repeated ;  the  human 
mind  is  carried  beyond  them.  It  is  permeated  with  a 
light  that  suffices  for  all.  A  deeper  spiritual  habit  is 
implanted  that  spreads  laterally  and  by  descent.  Relig- 
ious thought,  in  all  its  manifold  forms,  is  struggling  to 
be  catholic,  universal,  as  science  and  art  and  morality 
strive  after  general  truths.  The  special  is  always  persist- 
ing in  its  specialty,  and  giving  place  reluctantly  to  the 
more  general. 

When  we  speak  m  this  way  of  religion,  we  must  not  be 
understood  to  mean  some  ultimate,  ideal  conception 
which  is  to  gather  up  in  each  mind  and  in  all  minds  the 
elements  of  order,  and  hold  them  crystallized  in  perfect 
form  ;  but  those  actual  conceptions  of  spiritual  truths 
8 


SOCIOLOGY. 

which  are  to  us  religions,  and  cover  the  screen  which 
hides  from  us  the  invisible.  Those  who  hold  one  of  these 
phases  of  belief,  far  off  though  it  may  be  from  the  per- 
spective centre  to  which  religious  life  is  converging,  re- 
mote though  it  may  be  from  the  stage  in  progress  which 
the  race,  with  some  unanimity,  has  reached,  attach  to  it 
all  the  authority  which  belongs  to  the  grand  movement 
of  which  it  is  a  portion,  and  to  the  growing  revelation 
whose  light  it  dimly  reflects.  This  easy  assumption  of 
every  erratic  faith  to  be  near  the  centre  of  belief,  which 
all  men  are  approaching,  has  greatly  obscured  religious 
thought,  and  embittered  religious  discussion.  Christian- 
ity, as  the  mind  of  Christ,  still  remains  to  be  seen,  felt, 
realized.  Many  partial  things  have  been  done,  but  no 
complete  things  ;  many  half  truths  have  been  spoken,  but 
no  entire  truths.  An  individual  consciousness,  permeated 
with  spiritual  light  and  altogether  alive  with  it ;  rational 
convictions,  customs,  sentiments  in  the  community,  or- 
ganizing it  into  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven ;  the  reflex  light 
and  love  in  each  mind  due  to  the  love  and  light  in  all 
minds;  a  just,  general  and  beneficent  interpretation  of 
every  perplexed  phase  of  individual  and  social  life — these 
are  things  which  lie  remotely  before  us,  not  with  us  or 
behind  us,  and  these  are  religion,  these  are  Christianity. 
§  13.  It  is  not,  therefore,  in  any  way  irreverent  to  speak 
of  development,  progress,  along  the  most  central  line 
which  has  marked  the  unfolding  of  religious  thought,  nor 
to  observe  the  contributions  to  truth  which  have  come 
from  more  divergent  lines.  One  cannot  fail  to  see  a 
great  contrast  between  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament ; 
and  also  a  great  contrast  between  the  words  of  Christ  and 
any  one  creed  or  any  one  form  of  life  which,  in  religious 
history,  has  embodied  them.  We  easily  carry  back  to 
the  Old  Testament  light  which  has  been  gathered  in  later 


RELIGION.  l !  5 

years,  and  in  doing  this  we  may  sometimes  reach  a  more 
just  conception  of  the  inner  force  of  the  prophetic  mind, 
since  that  mind  was  hidden  in  part  from  itself  and  still 
more  from  others.  Yet  it  is  plain,  that  in  this  way  we 
easily  misunderstand  the  historic  facts  of  faith,  as  they 
stood  out  in  the  lives  of  those  who  entertained  them. 

This  true  coloring  we  need  to  carefully  restore.  The 
life  of  the  Old  Testament  was  more  gross,  narrow  and 
sensuous  than  we  often  conceive  it  to  be,  reaching  it  as 
we  do  only  by  the  points  of  light  that  flecked  the  dark- 
ness, only  by  the  stars  that  send  a  single  ray  out  into  the 
universe  beyond  them. 

In  the  account  of  creation,  God  is  spoken  of  as  resting 
on  the  seventh  day ;  and  this,  his  rest,  is  given  in  the 
fourth  commandment  as  the  reason  of  the  Sabbath. 
The  Lord  says  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  I  will  go  down 
now  and  see  whether  they  have  done  altogether  accord- 
ing to  the  cry  of  it  which  is  come  unto  me,  and  if  not  I 
will  know.  Moses  is  placed  in  a  cleft  of  the  rock,  and 
covered  with  the  hand  of  God  that  he  might  not  see  his 
face,  but  his  back  only.  A  mystery  and  profound  fear 
were  involved  in  the  name  of  God, — a  conception  in  keep- 
ing with  a  kindred  feeling  among  many  races — and  rever- 
ence, in  the  third  commandment,  is  made  to  have  chief 
reference  to  the  use  of  the  name  of  God.  This  has  given 
rise  to  a  superstitious  feeling  which  lingers  to  our  time. 
A  very  disproportionate  sense  of  guilt  attends  on  an  oath, 
even  when  it  has  not  sprung  from  an  irreverent  temper. 
The  substance  of  the  sin  is  overlooked  in  the  prominence 
given  to  one  of  its  expressions. 

The  worship  of  God,  when  it  had  assumed  its  most 
complete  form,  was  intensely  local,  and  exceedingly  sen- 
suous in  its  aspect.  There  was  the  Holy  of  Holies ; 
there  was  the  shew-bread,  "  the  bread  of  the  face,  a  con- 


jj5  SOCIOLOGY. 

stant  sacrificial  meal  which  Israel  offered  unto  God  and 
wherewith  God  in  turn  fed  his  priesthood;"  there  was 
the  incense  on  the  altar  spread  "  as  near  as  possible  to 
the  Holy  of  Holies ; "  there  were  the  offerings  made  by 
fire,  a  sweet  savor  unto  the  Lord.  This  is  the  frequently 
returning  phrase,  even  in  connection  with  sin  offerings, 
a  sweet  savor  unto  the  Lord.  It  is  said  concerning  the 
offering  of  Noah,  the  Lord  smelled  a  sweet  savor,  and  the 
Lord  said  in  his  heart,  I  will  not  again  curse  the  ground 
any  more  for  man's  sake.  The  first-born  and  the  first 
fruits  were  regarded  as  belonging  unto  God,  and  his  ser- 
vice was  one  turning  largely  on  gifts,  sacrifices,  rites. 
Sound  reasons  may  be  given  for  this  discipline,  but  they 
are  none  the  less  based  on  a  very  obscure  conception  of 
God  and  of  our  relation  to  him. 

Men's  notions  concerning  the  character  of  God  corre- 
sponded with  this  method  of  worship.  He  was  the  God 
of  Israel  in  a  peculiar  sense ;  a  sense  that  often  carried 
with  it,  doubtless,  the  impression  of  a  national  deity. 
Prosperity  and  punishment  were  the  direct  incidents  of 
worship,  or  the  neglect  of  worship.  Religious  worship 
and  spiritual  character  were  correspondingly  disassoci- 
ated, and  the  union  of  the  two  became  a  special  enforce- 
ment of  the  later  prophets.  God  was  offended  by  a  num- 
bering of  his  people,  as  if  it  implied  some  assertion  of 
pride  and  independence  on  their  part. 

A  future  life  was  but  obscurely  taught,  and  local  and 
national  interests  overshadowed  all  others.  God  repents 
of  what  he  has  done ;  he  is  a  man  of  war.  Anger,  jeal- 
ousy, vengeance— those  unfit  and  most  human  forms  of 
passion — are  ascribed  to  him.  He  is  clothed  with  ven- 
geance as  with  a  garment. 

When  we  turn  to  the  words  of  Christ  there  is  a  great 
change.  The  full  flower  is  not  more  unlike  the  early  bud 


RELIGION.  ll« 

than  is  his  spirit  unlike  the  Jewish  temper  from  which  it 
sprang.  The  culminating  revelation  of  God  in  the  New 
Testament  is  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Thus  in  this  pro- 
gressive unfolding,  strength,  majesty,  dominion  are  dis- 
closed in  God ;  tenderness,  patience  and  love  in  Christ ; 
and,  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  a  pure,  pervasive,  spiritual  pres- 
ence holding  all  these  attributes. 

In  the  development  of  Christianity  there  have  been 
frequent  and  marked  retrogressions  in  the  conception  of 
God.  Such  an  idea  as  that  of  the  intercession  of  saints 
introduces  at  once  a  heavenly  hierarchy,  and  all  the  in- 
directions, obstructions  and  aids  of  an  earthly  court.  It 
is  worthy  of  observation  that,  in  troublesome  and  pas- 
sionate periods,  there  has  been  a  tendency  in  believers  to 
revert  to  the  Old  Testament  language  and  feeling.  When 
Jonathan  Edwards  says,  "The  God  that  holds  you  over 
the  pit  of  hell,  much  as  one  holds  a  spider  or  some  loath- 
some insect  over  the  fire,  abhors  you,  and  is  dreadfully 
provoked,"  he  is  expressing  the  sentiment  of  the  im- 
precatory psalms,  not  those  of  the  gospel.  God  is  angry 
with  the  wicked  every  day.  If  he  turn  not  he  will  whet 
his  sword ;  he  hath  bent  his  bow  and  made  it  ready. 
This  temper  easily  arises  in  tempestuous  times,  and  is 
quite  other  than  the  sweet,  gentle  thought  of  Christ  as 
shown  in  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Our  Father  who  art  in 
Heaven,  Hallowed  be  thy  name,  Thy  kingdom  come,  Thy 
will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  Give  us  this  day 
our  daily  bread,  and  forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  forgive 
our  debtors.  -  Lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us 
from  evil  ;  for  thine  is  the  Kingdom,  and  the  power  and 
the  glory,  forever,  Amen.  These  two  dispositions  are 
not  opposite  sides  of  one  disposition.  They  involve  dif- 
ferent centres,  and  different  conceptions  of  character. 
The  one  profoundly  reconstructs  the  other.  One  of  the 


ng  SOCIOLOGY. 

tablets  of  Scotland  vividly  records  the  feelings  to  which 
persecution  gave  rise  in  that  country.  The  servants  of 
God,  wickedly  pushed,  pushed  in  return,  with  what  spirit 
was  in  them. 

"  They  will  know  at  resurrection  day, 
To  murder  saints  was  no  sweet  play." 

There  is  a  strange  reluctance  in  admitting  this  slow 
development  of  the  idea  of  God  in  the  two  Testaments, 
and  in  the  intervening  history  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Yet  nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  that  the  ill  in- 
formed mind  and  disobedient  heart  of  man  can  but  very 
partially  receive  the  true  idea  of  God ;  that  this  idea 
must  enlarge  with  enlarging  obedience  ;  and  that  each  en- 
largement must  be  attended  with  corrections  as  well  as 
additions.  The  unity  of  character  necessitates  this  per- 
petual transformation  in  all  its  terms.  We  are  still  very 
far  from  having  fully  entered  into  the  mind  of  Christ ;  we 
are  far  from  having  fully  entered  into  the  work  and  word 
of  God  as  they  are  being  unfolded  in  the  physical  and  the 
social  world. 

A  definite  assertion  of  religious  faith  ;  a  complete  organ- 
ization under  it ;  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  a 
great  church,  with  its  own  and  its  urgent  interests ;  the 
formation  of  rites  and  observances  conformable  to  the 
doctrines  promulgated,  and  to  the  immediate  organic 
ends  offered  ;  the  intensifying  of  faith  and  piety,  of  fear 
and  hope  in  the  prescribed  lines ;  the  increasing  reluc- 
tance of  the  individual  to  take  a  single  step  unaided  and 
unencouraged  by  those  about  him  ;  the  fearful  thought  of 
being  alone  in  that  most  solitary  of  all  worlds,  the  spiritual 
world :  these  influences,  woven  firm  by  all  the  memories 
and  discipline  of  childhood,  by  the  experience  of  age  and 
many  of  the  most  tender  incidents  of  life,  constrain  most 


RELIGION.  II9 

men  with  an  irresistible  energy,  holding  them  fast  within 
the  circuit  of  their  own  faith.  If  they  wander  forth,  it  is 
simply  straying  from  the  fold,  without  wisdom  and  with- 
out safety.  While  this  one  fact,  this  great  fact  of  the 
world's  religious  history,  stands  for  a  necessary  and  most 
profound  movement  forward,  it  also  involves  many  evils 
which  should  receive  constant  correction. 

Strong,  deep-reaching  organization  is  not  what  society 
now  needs  in  religion.  Christ  organized  nothing,  and  so 
left  many  things  to  be  organized.  What  we  call  for  is 
variable,  flexible,  4ight  affiliations,  affiliations  that  give 
free  play  to  thought,  nourishing  it  by  all  near  and  remote 
resources.  Relatively  full  and  independent  life-forces 
call  for  much  plastic  material,  and,  as  the  result  of  their 
own  activity,  should  increase  this  material.  The  free,  the 
spiritual,  the  personal  are  to  triumph  over  the  fixed,  the 
mechanical,  the  organic ;  and  religion  is  to  become  a  per- 
vasive atmosphere  of  the  largest  life.  That  is  to  say,  the 
building  power  is  to  pass  more  and  more  from  the 
physical  world  to  the  spiritual  world.  This  assertion 
does  not  annul  the  individual  church  ;  it  makes  it  a  single 
term  in  the  general  religious  life.  Each  church  defines 
the  band  of  workers  to  which  any  one  worker  belongs, 
and  so  far  his  position  in  the  great  army  of  workers.  A 
religious  thought  which  is  the  product  of  all  the  thoughts 
of  men,  a  spiritual  insight,  born  of  the  light  and  growing 
with  the  light,  these  are  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  How- 
ever divisible  religious  truth  may  be  in  its  uses,  it  absorbs 
all  revelation. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ETHICS. 

§  I.  THE  empirical  philosophy  differs  not  more  in  its 
manner  of  procedure  from  the  intuitive  philosophy,  than 
it  does  in  its  conception  of  the  facts  which  are  offered 
for  explanation.  The  method  reacts  strongly  on  the 
conception  of  the  facts  subject  to  it,  and  so  both  the 
phenomena  discussed  and  the  discussions  themselves  are 
irreconcilable  in  the  two  philosophies.  As  both  schools 
of  thought  use  popular  speech  in  its  application  to  morals, 
the  difference  in  the  facts  considered  is  not  as  conspicu- 
ous as  it  otherwise  would  be,  and  as  it  ought  to  be  for  the 
sake  of  clear,  progressive  thought.  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen, 
in  his  work  on  the  "  Science  of  Ethics,"  has  given  ex- 
tended and  thorough  expression  to  the  nature  of  ethical 
facts  as  apprehended  by  those  who  refer  them  to  social 
evolution  simply. 

The  ruling  image  with  him — and  every  empiricist  is 
very  likely,  in  discussing  supersensible  facts,  to  guide 
both  thought  and  language  by  a  sensible  image — is  that 
of  '  social  tissue.'  This  tissue  is  built  up  of  men,  as  an 
animal  tissue  is  built  up  of  cells.  It  is  the  substratum  and 
source  of  social  activity.  It  arises  by  social  evolution, 
and  responds  with  increasing  fulness  and  exactness  to 
social  wants.  External  incentives  act  in  this  living  thing, 
the  '  social  tissue  ; '  and  the  *  social  tissue  '  receives  and 
stores  the  organic  changes  incident  to  variable  circum- 
stances. This  image,  sustained  by  the  facts  of  animal 

120 


ETHICS.  I2i 

life,  is  made  to  yield  a  color  of  explanation,  a  reflection 
of  light,  to  social  phenomena,  especially  on  their  blind, 
instinctive  side.  The  relation  of  intelligent  to  instinctive 
action  is  deeply  involved  in  this  presentation.  Social  in- 
stinct may  be  regarded  as  implicit  reason,  or  reason  as 
highly  developed  instinct.  Instinct  is  thus  reason  limited 
to  immediate  facts,  and  incapable  of  reflecting  on  its  own 
processes  ;  and  reason  is  extended  instinct,  apprehending 
distant  relations,  and  becoming  conscious  of  its  own  ac- 
tion. The  '  social  tissue  '  is  the  seat  of  impulse,  instinct, 
and  the  concurrent  effort  of  reason.  "  Instinct  includes 
all  conscious  impulses  to  action,  whether  including  more 
or  less  reasoned  choice."  *  Society  involves  an  aggregate 
of  instincts,  resting  on  *  social  tissue,'  and  modifiable  with 
it.  "  Morality  is  a  statement  of  the  conditions  of  social 
welfare."  "  Morality  is  the  sum  of  the  preservative  in- 
stincts of  a  society,  and  presumably  of  those  which  imply 
a  desire  for  the  good  of  society  itself."  f  "  The  moral 
law  defines  a  property  of  the  social  tissue.  Hence  it 
must  be  natural,  not  artificial ;  it  must  grow  and  not  be 
made ;  for  these  properties  are  the  instinctive  and  under- 
lying properties  implied  in  all  special  societies,  incapable 
of  being  abruptly  altered  by  the  action  of  any  particu- 
lar person,  or  in  obedience  to  any  subordinate  series  of 
events,  and  gradually  developed  as  society  grows,  instead 
of  being  the  fruit  of  special  contingencies."  \  "  The  true 
school  of  morality  is  the  family."  "  The  moral  quality 
of  every  man  is  determined  to  a  very  great  extent  in  his 
infancy."  § 


*  "  Science  of  Ethics,"  p.  83. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  217. 
\  Ibid.,  p.  1 68. 
§Ibid.,  p.  344- 


I22  SOCIOLOGY. 

These  quotations  are  given  from  an  author  of  acknowl- 
edged merit,  as  a  brief  method  of  disclosing  the  exact 
facts  which  the  empiricist  conceives  to  be  the  ethical  facts 
of  the  world,  and  which  he  undertakes  to  expound  by 
his  philosophy.  It  is  not  of  the  slightest  use  in  morals  to 
discuss  the  methods  of  evolution  involved  in  ethical  phe- 
nomena, till  we  can  agree  as  to  what  these  phenomena 
are. 

The  phenomena  we  term  ethical  are  strictly  and  ex- 
clusively conscious  and  voluntary.  They  are  facts  which 
occur  in  intellectual  light,  and  owe  their  character  to  the 
distinct  action  of  the  mind.  Virtue  can  no  more  walk  in 
darkness  than  can  truth.  Ethical  facts  are  those  with 
which  we  are  all  familiar  when  we  ask,  or  are  asked,  con- 
cerning lines  of  conduct,  forms  of  policy,  Are  they  right  ? 
The  distinctive  element  in  ethics  is  the  conscious  insight 
which  attends  such  questions,  when  their  terms  are  all  be- 
fore us ;  the  emotional  element,  the  feelings  thus  aroused  ; 
and  the  voluntary  element,  the  conduct  which  springs 
from  the  answer.  Now  here  is  no  '  social  tissue,'  nor  any 
other  tissue.  We  might  as  well  explain  a  treatise  on 
geometry  by  the  '  social  tissue/  as  one  on  ethics.  Both 
are  distinctly  referable  to  intellectual  activity,  and  noth- 
ing else  ;  the  ethical  insight  being  of  the  two  much  more 
broad,  emotional,  practical.  It  matters  not  by  what  cir- 
cumstances this  insight  is  called  out,  it  still  remains  the 
source  of  its  own  products. 

Ethical  insight,  in  altering  conduct  will  alter  all  the 
submerged  terms  on  which  conduct  rests.  Conduct,  in 
passing  from  clear  consciousness  into  habit,  from  indi- 
vidual conviction  into  social  sentiment  and  custom,  calls 
to  its  aid,  is  modified  by,  and  modifies,  many  conscious 
and  unconscious  processes ;  but  these  give  only  the  con- 
ditions and  methods  of  moral  action  and  not  its  distinc- 


ETHICS.  J23 

tive  quality.  This  abides  in  rational  insight,  and  there 
only.  The  study  of  logic  may  alter  the  spontaneous 
Judgments  that  follow  later,  yet  logic  as  a  science  per- 
tains to  the  distinct  recognition  of  the  conclusiveness, 
the  correctness  in  form,  of  certain  processes  of  thought. 
The  first  condition  of  distinctness  in  ethical  discussion  is 
the  clear  recognition  of  both  elements,  the  purely  intel- 
lectual one  and  the  extendedly  organic  one  with  which 
it  is  associated.  We  are  prepared  then  to  understand 
"each  in  its  relation  to  the  other. 

The  animal  kingdom  is  full  of  what  Mr.  Stephen 
terms  *  social  tissue,'  and  should  be  full,  therefore,  of 
morality,  far  more  precise,  if  less  extended,  than  that 
current  among  men.  The  difference  of  conception  in- 
volved in  the  empirical  and  intuitive  view  of  morals  is  too 
great  to  admit  any  profitable  discussion  of  minor  points, 
or  even  of  the  intelligibility  of  such  discussion.  Instinct 
and  reason  are  not  recognized  by  the  intuitionalist  as 
in  any  way  interchangeable  terms ;  they  stand  rather  in 
marked  contrast.  The  above  definition  of  reason,  that 
it  is  extended  instinct,  self-conscious  instinct,  seems  to  the 
intuitionalist  little  better  than  verbiage.  One  might  as 
well  say  that  reflection  is  self-conscious  digestion.  In- 
stinct is  the  second  step  in  purely  organic,  physical  life. 
Organic  life  is  ordered  through  the  nervous  system  by  an 
internal  response  to  internal  stimuli.  Instinctive  life  is 
ordered  by  a  kindred,  automatic  response  to  external  and 
internal  stimuli,  which,  in  the  action  secured,  fit  the  or- 
ganic being  to  its  environment.  Strictly  organic  action 
is  action  within  the  organism,  based  on  internal  changes. 
Instinctive  action  is  associated  with  stimuli  that  pertain 
to  the  external  world,  and  which  tend  to  secure  the  con- 
ditions of  well-being  which  it  demands.  Organic  action 
and  instinctive  action  together  give  the  conditions  of  a 


124 


SOCIOLOGY. 


physical  life  that  can  proceed  without  consciousness,  and 
to  which  consciousness  is  only  incidental.  This  physical 
life  in  turn  prepares  the  way  for  that  associative  life 
which  attends  on  enlarged  consciousness  ;  and  a  life  of 
this  order,  sustained  by  organic,  -instinctive  and  associa- 
tive activities,  is  prepared  to  furnish  that  basis  of  being 
on  which  reason  rests,  to  which  it  can  be  added.  These 
forms  of  action  which  lie  below  reason  do  not  explain 
reason,  they  furnish  the  needed  support  to  reason,  and 
that  with  which  reason  is  to  deal. 

Instinct  is  expounded  as  lapsed  knowledge.  There 
could  not  readily  be  a  more  fundamental  perversion  of 
the  true  sequence.  Instinct,  in  the  great  mass  of  its 
facts,  like  organic  life,  precedes  knowledge.  Doubtless 
there  are  a  few  sporadic  facts  to  be  explained  by  the 
above  view.  Reason  may  modify  organic  life,  and  may 
modify  instinct.  A  dog  with  a  large  basis  of  instinct — 
automatic  action  under  external  stimuli — may  doubtless 
be  so  trained  as  to  extend  this  instinct.  An  associative 
action  may  lapse  into  an  instinctive  one.  So  a  man  may 
somewhat  change  his  method  of  breathing ;  is  respira- 
tion, therefore,  lapsed  intelligence?  The  ebb  of  a  wave 
gives  conditions  for  the  next  wave,  but  does  not  explain 
it. 

This  difference  of  view  as  to  the  facts  themselves 
should  first  be  overcome,  and  can  only  be  overcome  by  a 
wide  survey  of  the  field  in  all  its  features ;  a  recognition 
of  the  phenomena  with  which  we  have  to  deal  in  their 
manifold  groups,  and  a  willingness  to  confront  these 
peculiar  facts  in  their  most  distinctive  forms.  We  shall 
do  well  to  define  instinct,  for  example,  in  its  nature  and 
office,  by  the  part  it  plays  in  insect  life.  Here  it  passes 
to  its  most  complete  expression  and  maximum  amount. 
We  shall  do  well  to  settle  the  nature  of  ethical  facts  by  a 


ETHICS.  I25 

study  of  the  convictions,  feelings,  actions  of  the  most 
conscientious  men  and  the  most  enlightened  communi- 
ties. We  may  afterward  do  what  we  can  to  explain  the 
growth  of  these  facts,  but  these  are  the  facts  which  we 
have  to  expound,  and  not  some  other  facts  more  or  less 
remote  from  them. 

§  2.  Ethical  phenomena  are  not  obscure  or  distant. 
They  lie  upon  the  surface  of  individual  and  social  life, 
and,  as  simple  facts,  ought  not  easily  to  take  a  false 
coloring.  The  appetites  in  man,  as  contrasted  with 
other  forms  of  animal  life,  have  been  loosened  from  auto- 
matic government.  They  remain  to  be  corrected  and 
governed  by  reason.  The  desires  and  passions  of  men, 
in  form,  intensity  and  variety,  turn  very  much  on  social 
development. 

A  large  and  expanding  field  of  activity  is  given  to 
man  by  his  relations  to  his  fellows  in  their  individual  and 
joint  growth.  These  separate  and  collective  forms  of 
action  are  also  to  be  guided  and  governed  by  reason.  In 
addition  to  the  more  immediate  impulses  of  appetite,  in 
addition  to  the  increasing  incentives  of  man's  social 
nature,  there  are  also  the  higher  inspirations  which 
belong  to  him  as  a  spiritual  being,  and  the  affections 
which  wait  to  be  called  out  in  connection  with  them. 
The  constitutional  balance  and  harmony  of  wise  conduct 
is  a  result  that  waits  on  thoughtful  insight.  Much  is  to 
be  partially  repressed,  much  is  to  be  awakened,  much  is 
to  be  guided  into  favorable  channels.  The  beauty  of 
character,  the  perfection  of  society,  are  not  automatic 
products,  they  are  the  products  of  reflection,  discernment, 
choice.  So  practical  morals  and  historic  growth  con- 
stantly treat  them.  To  treat  them  in  any  other  way,  to 
expound  them  in  any  other  fashion,  is  to  make  morals  an 


126  SOCIOLOGY. 

affair  of  'social  tissue,'  is  to  draw  attention  to  a  different 
and  quite  subordinate  set  of  facts. 

The  ethical  phenomena,  which  stand  out  so  boldly  in 
biography  and  in  history,  have  two  cardinal  features : 
thoughtful  inquiry,  uncovering  broadly  the  relations  of 
conduct ;  and  insight  into  conduct,  as  fit  or  unfit,  right  or 
wrong.  The  problem  of  conduct  and  character  is  always 
a  growing  one.  The  relations  of  actions  are  becoming 
more  comprehensive,  and  man's  apprehension  of  them 
more  just  and  complete.  Hence  the  sense  of  rightful- 
ness  is  correspondingly  modified.  This  increasing  dis- 
cernment of  the  constitutional  law  of  rational,  social  ac- 
tion is  a  conjoint  one  of  unfolding  and  of  insight,  of  ex- 
perience and  of  interpretation.  A  problem  in  geometry 
owes  its  convincing  power  to  the  order  of  the  successive 
steps  of  proof,  to  the  discernment  which  makes  each 
step  and  all  steps  collectively  satisfactory.  There  is  no 
knowledge  which  does  not  turn  on  some  form  of  ultimate, 
appropriate  insight.  The  empiricist  seems  to  speak  as 
if  events,  with  no  interior  connection,  could  make  a  world 
of  coherent  mental  experiences,  as  if  an  experience,  with 
no  unity  of  reason,  could  yet  attain  to  wisdom.  Passive 
reception  is  a  dead  process,  rational  power  is  a  living 
one,  turning  the  symbols  of  thought  into  thought  itself. 
Till  we  reach  this  final,  sufficient  movement  of  mind,  this 
insight  which  is  the  bright  centre  of  thought,  all  else  is 
mere  mechanism ;  terms  of  knowledge,  not  knowledge 
itself. 

What  the  intuitionalist  affirms  in  reference  to  morals 
is,  that  conduct,  spread  in  extension  before  the  mind, 
understood  in  its  motives  and  consequences,  is  compre- 
hended by  it  for  what  it  is,  conduct ;  is  discerned  by 
reason — precisely  as  it  unites  steps  of  proof — as  spirit- 
ually fit  or  unfit  under  the  constitution  of  man  and 


ETHICS.  I2j 

society,  as  right  or  wrong.  Till  the  reason  does  see  this 
relation,  there  is  for  it  no  ground  of  action  ;  when  it  does 
see  it  there  can  be  for  it  no  higher  ground  of  action. 
The  intuitionalist  affirms  that  reason  involves  this  power 
of  insight,  which  expounds  experiences,  and  turns  facts 
into  a  law  of  conduct.  It  can  and  does  discern — with 
labor  and  error — the  fit  constitutional  terms  of  character. 
What  seems  to  it  fit,  it  terms  right,  and  lays  it  as  a  law 
upon  itself,  precisely  as  it  imposes  the  laws  of  thought 
upon  thought.  A  law  laid  on  reason  in  any  other  way  is 
revolting  to  reason,  and,  if  opposed  to  this  inner  con- 
viction, the  product  of  experience  and  insight, — experi- 
ence which  offers  the  problem,  and  insight  which  enables 
the  mind  to  solve  it — is  at  once  and  decisively  rejected 
by  it.  The  community  has  no  law  to  lay  upon  the 
individual  which  does  not  resolve  itself  into  this  -same 
insight,  or  become  the  blind,  aggressive,  tyrannical  ac- 
cumulation of  private  interests. 

The  whole  theory  of  morals  turns  on  the  simple  ques- 
tion, whether  there  is  reason  in  man,  power  of  discern- 
ment and  guidance ;  or  whether  he  is  waiting  for  the 
establishment,  singly  and  collectively,  of  automatic 
forces,  that  shall  bring  him  under  the  government  of 
adequate  law.  If  the  last  is  the  correct  statement,  man 
and  society  are  lawless,  ungoverned,  because  the  consti- 
tutional forces  which  will  ultimately  do  this  work  are  not 
yet  present ;  because  the  '  social  tissue '  is  not  yet 
developed.  If  the  first  statement  is  to  be  preferred, 
then  a  higher,  spiritual  order  is  being  established  of 
opening  spiritual  insights,  building  themselves  up  on  the 
basis  of  organic  forces.  These  organic  forces  will,  it  is 
true,  be  much  modified  by  the  higher  activity,  and 
brought  in  many  new  ways  to  sustain  it ;  but  in  this  ac- 


I2g  SOCIOLOGY. 

tivity,  none  the  less,  lie  the  gist  and  germ  of  the  new 
era. 

There  is  not  more  difference  between  a  cloud,  dissolved 
in  the  light  and  dissolving  it,  and  dead  color,  than  there  is 
between  physical  actions,  which  are  each  instant  shaped 
anew  under  omnipresent  insight,  and  a  merely  organic 
play  of  functions.  Take  the  violinist  in  animated  exe- 
cution. What  an  interesting  concurrence  is  there  of  dis- 
cernment, feeling  and  delicate  manipulation.  Body  and 
mind,  physical  form  and  spiritual  force,  inseparably  flow 
together  in  one  result,  a  result  alive  in  every  part  of 
it  with  an  intense  consciousness,  a  freely-flowing,  rational 
life,  which  is  what  it  is  by  what  it  sees  and  feels,  and 
which  sees  and  feels  by  what  it  is.  Blind,  organic  pro- 
cesses are  very  far  off  from  any  such  issues  of  higher  in- 
sight. 

Empirical  philosophy  is  able  to  parody  the  processes  of 
rational  growth  by  clinging  close  to  their  external  feat- 
ures, neglectful  of  the  life  that  animates  them.  Intuitions 
of  beauty  and  right  spring  up  in  an  intellectual,  social 
soil ;  they  give  rise  also  to  many  changed  conditions  of 
that  soil.  Empiricism  draws  attention  to  these  modified 
conditions,  and  unites  them  as  a  rational  experience,  omit- 
ting reason  itself. 

We  may  easily  and  wisely  dwell  on  the  growth  of 
experience,  as  furnishing  the  conditions  of  enlarging  law. 
We  may  trace  this  law  in  its  power  to  re-shape,  in  the 
individual  and  in  society,  the  organic  conditions  which  it 
touches,  and,  if  we  stop  here,  we  have  empiricism,  we 
have  phenomena,  but  not  the  energies  which  underlie 
them  ;  we  have  body  but  not  soul.  As  the  empiricist 
rules  the  mind  out  of  its  own  processes  from  the  very 
beginning,  it  is  a  matter  of  course  that  he  should  give  us, 
all  the  way  through,  the  formulae  of  action,  and  not  the 


ETHICS. 


I29 


idea  or  ideas  which  it  includes,  its  sensible  and  not  its 
rational  terms.  Spencer's  definition  of  life  is  an  example 
in  order:  "The  definite  combination  of  heterogeneous 
changes,  both  simultaneous  and  successive,  in  corre- 
spondence with  external  co-existences  and  sequences." 
This  is  a  description,  not  an  exposition ;  a  process,  not  a 
power ;  a  product  of  the  senses,  and  not  of  the  reason. 
If  our  philosophy  is  to  proceed  under  the  analogue  of  the 
senses,  we  are  virtually  dispensing  with  it  altogether.  The 
quicker  we  do  this  consciously  the  less  will  be  our  labor 
and  our  vexation. 

§  3.  Regarding  the  ethical  law  as  the  law  which  reason 
assigns  itself  in  conduct,  as  the  logical  law  is  the  law 
which  it  assigns  itself  in  thought,  and  the  aesthetic  law  is 
the  law  it  assigns  itself  in  form,  we  are  prepared  at  once 
to  define  the  scope  of  this  law,  and  its  authority.  Its 
scope  is  as  broad  as  conduce,  for  conduct  is  the  action  of 
a  rational  being  as  rational ;  and  its  authority  is  as 
absolute  as  reason,  that  is  absolute.  The  authority  that  is 
not  force  emanates  from  reason.  Reason  alone  possesses 
and  gives  authority.  It  alone  is  autocratic.  Religious 
truth  may,  to  the  reverential  mind,  seem  to  bring  limita- 
tion to  this  assertion ;  the  limitation  is  apparent,  not  real. 
The  moral  law  is  the  constitutional  law  of  man  and  of 
society.  It  is,  therefore,  the  divine  law.  Revelation  can 
only  disclose  this  law  more  and  more  fully.  Nature  is 
certainly  of  God.  We  affirm  his  being  on  the  ground  of 
nature.  Revelation  does  not  judge  nature,  nature  judges 
revelation.  The  universe  is  the  comprehensive  term  of 
knowledge.  That  only  is  revelation  which  reveals  the 
spiritual  force  of  the  physical,  social,  spiritual  facts  which 
surround  us. 

We  believe  in  God  because  of  the  moral  energy  of  the 
world  we  are  in.  By  means  of  this  righteousness  we 
9 


130 


SOCIOLOGY. 


reach  a  righteous  God.  The  righteousness  of  God  may 
enable  us  better  to  understand  the  righteousness  of  the 
world,  but  the  two  must  interpret  each  other,  and  agree 
with  each  other.  They  stand  in  mutual  reflection.  If 
we  are  sure  of  the  moral  law,  we  are  so  far  sure  of  the 
Divine  Mind ;  and  if  we  are  sure  of  the  Divine  Mind,  the 
correctness  of  our  conviction  must  disclose  itself  as  light 
brought  to  personal,  social,  historic  facts.  Religion  gives 
the  interpreting  ideas  of  spiritual  events,  and  the  two 
must  concur  in  knowledge.  But  the  facts  of  the  world  are 
fixed  terms,  while  the  ideas  that  expound  these  are 
flexible  ones.  It  is  those  that  determine  these,  not  these 
which  control  those. 

We  are  using  the  words  moral  and  morality  very 
broadly.  They  cover  all  conduct.  They  are  as  wide  as 
reason  in  its  rule  over  action.  They  teach,  therefore,  our 
relations  to  God  as  closely  as  our  relations  to  men.  Re- 
ligious ideas  are  convictions  which  arise  out  of  spiritual, 
ethical  experiences,  and  which  are  present  to  give  new 
depth  and  force  to  them.  Ethical  law  is  thus  the  all 
comprehensive  law  of  reason  in  guiding  and  governing 
itself.  It  is  the  law  that  first  abides  in  the  mind  of  God, 
and  is  transferred  thence  to  the  minds  of  men.  Reason 
kindles  reason,  and  bears  its  own  light  everywhere  with  it. 
We  reach  the  ethical  law,  the  lav/  of  reason, — finite  and 
infinite — as  the  supreme  law  of  life.  This  law,  in  its  appli- 
cation to  the  individual,  to  society,  and  to  them  both  in 
their  joint,  inseparable  development,  is  more  and  more 
intelligible  with  advancing  experience,  secures  a  deeper 
and  broader  hold  on  and  under  that  experience,  and  so 
becomes  increasingly  the  one  comprehensive  fact  in  soci- 
ology. All  social  laws  are  combined  and  shaped  together 
under  moral  law,  and  the  moral  law  is  the  supreme  law  of 
the  world,  supreme  over  all  interests  and  in  holding  all 


ETHICS.  j^j 

interests  together.  There  is  unity  in  life,  in  reason,  and 
this  law  is  the  expression  of  that  unity.  We  must  also 
be  reminded  that  by  reason,  used  comprehensively,  we 
mean  the  combined  force  of  all  knowing  faculties  and  of 
that  emotional  life  which  ministers  to  them. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ETHICS  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  CUSTOMS  AND   ECONOMICS. 

§  I.  WHEN  we  speak  of  society  as  organic,  we  mean 
that  it  tends  constantly  to  form,  and  does  form,  a  distinct 
whole,  with  a  close  dependence  and  interaction  of  parts ; 
and  this  by  means  of  tendencies  which  reach  this  result 
in  large  part  unconsciously  and  inevitably.  When  these 
constructive  forces  are  spoken  of  as  unconscious,  it  is 
not  meant  that  consciousness  does  not  accompany  their 
action,  but  that  the  end  reached  by  them  is  not  definitely 
proposed  and  pursued  in  consciousness.  Language  is 
organic,  because  its  production  is  not  due  to  design,  but 
is  incident  to  the  spontaneous  use  of  powers  having  other 
and  more  immediate  ends  in  view.  Such  quasi  organisms 
as  society,  government,  language,  lie  between  conscious, 
reflective  action  and  unconscious,  organic  action.  They 
are  the  immediate,  but  indirect,  product  of  spontaneous 
activity,  but  once  formed  they  are  increasingly  re-shaped 
of  set  purpose  to  the  rational  ends  of  life.  This  is  to  say 
that  they  lie  between  organic  and  ethical  forces,  between 
spontaneous  and  reflective  processes. 

Customs  preeminently  pertain  to  the  simply  organic 
movement  by  which  men  and  classes  fall  into  position  as 
regards  each  other.  The  procession  moves,  and  they  are 
drawn  on  by  it.  Customs,  as  we  have  seen,  express  the 
largest  amount  of  feeling  and  the  least  amount  of  reflec- 
tion in  the  constructive  process.  Economic  laws  are  inci- 
dent to  a  somewhat  more  extendedly  thoughtful  move- 

132 


ETHICAL  LA  W— CUSTOMS  AND  ECONOMICS. 


133 


ment,  but  it  is  one  narrowly  directed  towards  immediate 
ends.  These  laws  are  not  the  results  of  reflection,  striving 
to  guide  itself  in  correctly  ordering  the  phenomena  con- 
cerned, but  they  are  the  instant  products  of  selfish,  yet 
intelligent,  impulses.  They  inhere  as  laws  in  these 
impulses,  in  their  spontaneous  expression,  and  are  not 
laws  put  upon  them ;  they  are  organic  laws  and  not 
reflective  ones. 

There  are  three  grades  of  action  :  mechanical,  organic 
and  rational.  Mechanical  action,  within  itself,  takes  place 
with  no  combining  idea  or  law ;  organic  action  occurs 
under  an  unconscious  combining  law  or  power ;  rational 
action  is  put  together  in  obedience  to  a  direct,  conscious 
purpose.  In  saying  this  we  speak  of  each  form  of  action 
narrowly,  in  its  most  conspicuous  phase. 

Customs  and  economic  laws  constitute  a  very  essential 
part  of  those  organic  forces  to  which  the  formation  of 
society  is  due.  They  are,  in  their  constant  extension, 
precise  form,  and  present  conditions  of  application,  a  very 
essential  part  of  that  '  social  tissue  '  which  has  been 
spoken  of  as  the  seat  of  organic  power.  Individual  feel- 
ing, social  feeling,  current  desires,  customary  forms  of 
expressing  these  feelings  and  desires,  the  immediate 
methods  of  attaining  desires,  conventional  sentiments 
touching  all  these  points,  together  constitute,  in  large 
part,  the  organic  force  of  society. 

Over  against  these  influences,  maintaining  the  present 
form  of  order,  stand  the  reflective,  ethical  powers,  strug- 
gling to  bring  the  results  of  organization  into  harmony 
with  each  other  and  with  an  ideal.  Between  these  two 
diverse  influences  lies  the  orbit  of  society. 

§  2.  Customs,  in  their  full  variety  and  in  the  conven- 
tional sentiments — convictions  not  under  active  discus- 
sion— which  sustain  them,  cover  much  ground,  and  hold 


134 


SOCIOLOGY. 


it  with  great  tenacity  against  any  changes  save  those 
minor  ones  which  only  imperceptibly  modify  character. 
These  customs  may  have  their  supreme  hold  in  one  field, 
as  religion,  or  in  several  fields ;  but  wherever  they  are, 
they  occupy  the  ground  in  close  possession.  "  The  Eng- 
lish surpass  in  folly  all  the  nations  on  God's  earth,  and 
are  more  abject  slaves  to  custom,  to  opinion,  to  the 
desire  to  keep  up  a  certain  appearance,  than  the  Italians 
are  to  priestcraft,  the  French  to  vainglory,  the  Russians 
to  the  Czar,  or  the  Germans  to  black  beer."  Customs 
embodying  the  life  of  a  community,  expressing  the  equi- 
librium which  has  been  reached  in  a  long  history  of 
struggle,  have  great  power  to  resist  any  sudden  change, 
no  matter  how  rational  it  may  be.  Reason  as  well  as 
inclination  help  to  impart  this  inertia.  A  mere  shifting 
of  customs,  a  transfer  of  gains  and  losses  with  no  new 
approach  to  justice,  are  a  decided  disadvantage.  Burdens 
are  transferred  from  callous  to  uncallous  shoulders.  The 
protections  which  habit  always  sets  up  are  lost,  and  many 
unexpected  irritations  arise.  The  losses  in  attaining  a 
new  equilibrium  are  large,  and  can  only  be  compensated 
by  still  greater  gains. 

Customs  are  sustained  by  more  or  less  of  sound  reason- 
ing. The  state  reached  under  them  is  one  relatively  safe, 
and  one  which  experience  has  shown  to  be  bearable.  If 
familiar  safeguards  are  broken  down,  disorderly  and  de- 
structive forces  may  rush  in  with  less  fear  of  the  new 
than  of  the  old.  It  is  the  stronger,  more  constructive 
classes  that  are  usually  to  suffer  loss  by  a  change  of  cus- 
toms, and  the  weaker  and  more  disorderly  ones  that  are 
to  gain  ground.  Timid  minds  are  conservative,  choosing 
to  bear  existing  evils  rather  than  to  incur  the  risk  of 
unknown  ones.  The  prosperous  are  conservative,  for 
present  relations  are  favoring  them.  The  prudent  are 


E  THICAL  LA  W— CUSTOMS  AND  ECONOMICS.          j  3  5 

conservative,  for  prudence  lies  in  accepting  as  little  ex- 
posure to  failure  as  possible. 

We  are  also  to  remember  that  existing  feelings  con- 
stitute a  very  essential  term  in  all  social,  moral  judg- 
ments. What  seems  justice  to  us  turns  very  much  on 
the  sentiments  we  entertain  towards  those  about  us,  as 
justice  is,  in  large  part,  an  expression  of  feeling.  It  is 
impossible  for  a  community,  for  a  long  time  subject  to 
tyrannical  customs,  to  fully  see  this  tyranny,  or  to  per- 
fectly understand  that  which  is  offered  in  correction  of  it. 
Customs,  feelings,  thoughts,  must  themselves  change  as 
a  condition  of  correct  judgment.  Our  moral  convictions 
grow  up  slowly  with  and  out  of  our  social  sentiments. 
The  mind  is  never  fully  on  one  side  and  the  heart  on  the 
other.  The  mind  and  the  heart  unite  in  the  final  ver- 
dict. Each  mind  is  struggling  after  harmony  within 
itself,  precisely  as  the  community  is  striving  after  it.  One 
adjustment  is  not  fully  made  without  the  other. 

Only  one  force  is  sufficient  to  much  modify  or  steadily 
improve  customs,  and  that  is  moral  conviction,  developed 
in  advanced  minds.  This  slowly  reshapes  the  terms 
which  enter  into  social  customs,  and  is  sometimes  able  to 
bring  abrupt  change  to  civil  customs.  A  revolution  that 
is  one  of  physical  force  is  a  riot  rather  than  a  revolution, 
and  can  secure  ultimately  but  slight  re-adjustments.  Or- 
ganic change  must  itself  be  organic,  instituting  and  sus- 
taining a  constructive  movement  within  the  organism. 
The  only  force  that  can  do  this  is  the  moral  sentiment, 
in  one  or  other  of  its  modified  forms.  Justice  becomes 
visible,  then  possible.  Good-will  is  inspired,  and  so  at 
length  is  ready  for  expression.  Growing  convictions  re- 
duce prejudices,  and  so  soften  the  conflicts  of  feeling. 
Genial  sentiments  spring  up  and  kindlier  and  more  trust- 
ful thoughts  follow.  Sound  reason  confronts  unreason- 


SOCIOLOGY. 

able  conservatism,  the  experience  of  progress  emboldens 
the  mind,  and  the  glow  of  philanthropic  effort  warms  it. 
The  centre  of  progress,  firm,  safe  and  continuous,  is 
found  in  the  moral  reason,  pursuing  its  own  ends  from 
impulses  within  itself.  The  growth  of  society,  more  es- 
pecially the  rapid  growth  of  modern  times,  is  the  growth 
of  reason,  insight,  the  sense  of  conduct. 

To  develop  a  principle  and — the  more  difficult  task — to 
develop  a  practice  under  that  principle  call,  first,  for  the 
wise  interpretation  of  facts  by  the  few,  and,  second,  for 
the  slow  extension  of  that  wisdom  into  the  minds  of  the 
many.  Thus  some  races  are  especially  organic,  as  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  by  virtue  of  fundamental  convictions  con- 
solidated in  action. 

§  3.  No  other  tyranny  can  be  as  great  as  that  of  cus- 
tom, for  none  can  be  so  pervasive,  so  little  appreciated, 
so  feebly  resisted.  The  great  growth  of  liberty  lies  in  a 
constant  readjustment  of  customs,  social,  civil  and  relig- 
ious, for  the  better  development  of  the  life  they  order 
and  contain.  We  must  look  to  the  reason  of  men,  urged 
by  the  highest  incentives  for  the  leading  movements  in- 
volved in  progress.  Indeed,  this  seems  to  be  but  little 
more  than  a  truism,  if  we  remember  that  the  advanced 
state  implies  the  advanced  apprehension,  and  the  cheerful 
response  of  a  free,  full  life. 

India  has  already  been  referred  to  as  a  country  whose 
life  was  thoroughly  swathed  and  bound  fast  in  customs, 
with  the  strongest  social,  civil  and  religious  sanctions. 
The  moral  sentiment,  either  as  justice  or  benevolence, 
was  powerless  to  break  the  triple  bonds.  One  great 
effort  was  made  by  Gautama.  The  light  which  came  to 
him  was  ethical.  He  penetrated  more  deeply  and  truly 
the  relation  of  man  to  man,  the  brotherhood  of  men. 
He  placed  a  more  just  estimate  on  the  fierce  desires 


ETHICAL  LAW— CUSTOMS  AND  ECONOMICS. 


137 


which  divide  men,  and  which  consume  human  happiness. 
Buddhism  entered  on  a  long  and  stern  struggle  with  cus- 
tom, as  concentrated  and  consolidated  in  Brahmanism. 
The  forces  marshalled  in  this  strife  were  most  formidable. 
Buddhism,  after  many  and  great  successes,  was  at  length 
driven  from  India,  and  custom  regained  its  unbroken  do- 
minion. In  the  mean  time,  Buddhism  itself  had  been 
partially  conquered  by  custom,  and  it  went  forth  a  re- 
ligion, with  its  own  rites  and  methods.  It  was  no  longer 
a  faith  in  man  addressed  to  all  men.  If  we  could  trace 
minutely  the  rise  and  decline  in  Buddhism,  it  .would  be  a 
very  instructive  chapter  in  human  history.  It  offered  a 
protest,  at  first  effective,  to  the  overshadowing  power  of 
famUiar  ways,  and  itself  slowly  yielded  to  the  same  in- 
imical tendency.  The  last  century  in  France  showed 
the  convulsive  power  with  which  the  bonds  of  custom  are 
sometimes  broken  and  its  tyrannies  cast  off.  It  also 
showed  how  many  of  these  evils  revive  again  if  there  are 
no  clear,  universal,  ethical  convictions  with  which  to  build 
fresh  institutions  in  their  place.  The  moral  life  of  France 
has  not  been  strong,  and,  such  as  it  has  been,  it  has  been 
religious  rather  than  ethical.  Thus  France  has  been 
more  potent  in  pulling  down  than  in  building  up,  and 
has  passed  from  revolution  to  revolution  with  changes 
that  have  oscillated  between  tyranny  and  liberty.  Nor 
has  the  popular  mind  always  distinguished  the  one  from 
the  other.  If  the  French  have  awakened  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  ardent  by  their  bold  methods,  they  have  equally 
alarmed  the  fears  of  the  prudent,  and  excited  horror  in 
the  humane,  by  their  needless  destruction.  They  have 
failed  to  build  as  rapidly  as  they  have  overthrown,  be- 
cause they  have  lacked  firm  centres  of  conviction,  strong 
supports  in  the  popular  mind,  settled  and  coherent  prin- 
ciples. When  custom  and  institutions  have  crumbled, 


138 


SOCIOLOGY. 


they  have  crumbled  into  dust,  and  left  no  material  or 
foundation  for  a  new  edifice.  True  organic  destruction 
is  part  and  parcel  with  construction.  It  is  prompted  by 
it,  and  makes  way  for  it. 

A  strong  moral  sense  is  always  constructive.  It  is  by 
virtue  of  its  positive  assertions  that  its  negative  ones 
arise.  There  is  in  it  none  of  that  blind  passion,  that 
brute  instinct,  that  avenges  itself  without  knowing  how 
to  right  itself,  that  is  as  dangerous  to  its  own  interests  as 
to  the  interests  of  others.  The  moral  sense,  the  sense  of 
conduct,  lies  at  the  centre  of  all  fortunate  revolution  for 
this  very  reason,  that  it  is  in  pursuit  of  a  clearly  conceived 
and  constructive  purpose. 

§  4.  In  England  the  force  of  custom  is  strong,  and  so 
also  is  moral  conviction.  Ethical  sentiment,  especially  in 
the  form  of  justice,  is  deeply  seated  in  English  character. 
The  impulse  is  often  a  narrow  one,  but  rarely  dormant. 
Custom,  possession,  justice,  are  very  closely  associated  by 
Englishmen  ;  and  pure  justice  has  only  prevailed  over 
that  conventional  justice  which  stands  connected  with 
custom,  by  a  long  struggle,  carried  into  all  the  details  of 
life.  A  very  important  factor  in  the  development  of 
English  life  under  law  has  been  that  the  relation  of  its 
classes  has  but  very  partially  expressed  race  distinctions, 
or  the  results  of  conquest,  but  has  rested  very  largely 
on  the  energy  and  enterprise  of  those  concerned. 
Changes,  therefore,  have  been  wrought  slowly,  and  chiefly 
under  the  development  of  social  ideas  and  powers.  Says 
George  Eliot,  "  We  English  are  slow  creepers  "  ;  and  yet 
for  centuries  they  have  been  busy  creeping.  The  great 
additional  difficulties  arising  from  conquest,  diversity  of 
races,  and  of  religious  convictions,  are  seen  in  Ireland. 

The  balance  between  custom,  the  conviction  of  the 
past,  and  truth,  the  conviction  of  the  present,  has  been 


ETHICAL  LAW— CUSTOMS  AND  ECONOMICS. 

wonderfully  well*  sustained  in  England.  Among  her 
great  men,  conservatism  and  radicalism  have  only  rarely 
stood  for  sentiments  so  hostile  as  to  preclude  discussion. 
Sometimes  men  of  wide  scope  of  thought,  as  Burke,  have 
fallen  into  a  senseless  fear  of  change ;  and  again  men  of 
brilliant  endowment,  as  Shelley,  have  quite  fallen  out  from 
English  society  because  of  their  erratic  radicalism.  In 
neither  case,  however,  have  such  men  much  modified  the 
deep,  strong  stream  of  social  tendency  in  England. 

Custom  has  so  far  stood  in  England  for  law,  order, 
that  it  has  not  been  rejected  except  in  behalf  of  new  law 
and  another  phase  of  order.  Those  who  have  simply 
pulled  down  custom  have  been  the  rabble,  and  their 
action  has  been  riot. 

"  The  rabble  call  him  lord ; 
And,  as  the  world  were  now  but  to  begin, 
Antiquity  forgot,  custom  not  known, 
The  ratifiers  and  props  of  every  word, 
They  cry,  Choose  we  ;  Laertes  shall  be  king." 

The  quiet,  practical  way  in  which  the  new  displaces 
the  old  is  well  illustrated  just  now  in  the  right  which  the 
speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  is  gaining  of  closing 
obstructive  debate,  under  the  reason  of  urgency.  Cus- 
tom and  the  strong  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  freedom  of 
debate  have  gone  so  far  as  oftentimes  to  baffle  the  very 
end  in  view,  and  make  deliberation  futile.  The  closure  of 
debate  is  required  on  the  ground  that  the  urgency  of  im- 
mediate interests  does  not  allow  its  continuance.  Thus, 
with  no  systematic  method  or  enunciated  principle,  the 
expediency  of  discussion  is  confronted  by  the  deeper 
expediency  of  bringing  discussion  to  a  conclusion,  each 
case  being  settled  by  its  own  merits,  under  watchful 
self-interest.  The  English  constitution  has  thus  been 


140 


SOCIOLOGY. 


wrought  out  between  two  strong  tendencies,  each  acting 
narrowly  and  continuously  :  that  of  custom  and  that  of 
renewed  conviction.  The  moral  sense  has  been  in  this 
conflict,  though  often  an  obscure,  a  pervasive,  power,  ex- 
tending to  all  classes,  and  finding  its  way  into  society  and 
religion  and  law.  The  English  have  especially  trusted — 
a  form  of  trust  to  which  men  necessarily  come  at  last — 
to  the  active  restraint  of  man  by  man,  party  by  party, 
in  immediate  oversight  of  each  other.  A  government 
of  simply  regulation  and  law  quickly  becomes  mechan- 
ical and  ineffective.  Restraint,  like  guidance,  must  be 
inner  and  personal ;  it  cannot  be  a  thing  of  external 
bounds  merely. 

§  5.  In  America  custom  has  been  reduced  to  its 
lowest  terms.  Public  opinion  takes  its  place,  but  by  no 
means  an  ideal  public  opinion.  Perfect  public  opinion 
would  give  easy  admission  and  thorough  discussion  to 
new  ideas,  and  would  hold  the  balance  of  reason  between 
the  new  and  the  old.  This  form  of  opinion,  in  which  the 
ethical  sentiment  has  sway,  in  which  liberty  refuses  to 
lose  itself  in  custom  or  submit  the  future  to  the  past,  is 
still  remote.  The  various  race  elements  in  our  national- 
ity all  occupy  the  same  social  ground,  with  constantly 
decreasing  prejudice,  and  a  steady  reduction  of  the  di- 
visive forces  of  religious  faith.  Social  customs  are  much 

Droken  and   easily  give  way.     No  country,  therefore,  is 

eady  for  more  astonishingly  rapid  and  peaceful  changes. 

There  are  a  perpetual  ebb  and  flow  of  sentiment  which  is 
not  simply  willing  to  receive  guidance,  but  demands  it. 
We  can  only  live  by  constant  reconstruction. 

Political  parties  are,  with  us,  a  chief  means  of  gathering, 

:onsolidating  and  extending  a  tendency.  Moral  and 
social  questions,  like  the  question  of  slavery  or  of  temper- 
ance, are  closely  involved  in  these  means  of  political  in- 


ETHICAL  LAW— CUSTOMS  AND  ECONOMICS.          J4I 

fluence.  The  social  and  the  political  are  with  us  pecu- 
liarly inseparable  from  each  other.  Parties,  engaged  in  a 
vigorous  discussion  of  some  question  of  national  policy, 
eagerly  followed  into  all  its  social  bearings,  secure  as  rapid 
and  just  a  conclusion  as  the  intelligence  and  morality  of 
the  mass  of  the  citizens  will  allow.  But  parties,  even 
when  the  product  of  a  great  idea,  soon  come  to  be  gov- 
erned by  personal  and  partisan  ends.  They  are  rapidly 
perverted  by  power.  They  fall  into  the  hands  of  politi- 
cians ;  that  is,  men  who  have  the  knack  of  management, 
and  who  seek  private  interests  in  public  matters.  It  is 
well  nigh  impossible  to  shake  off  this  control  within  the 
party  itself. 

The  evil  is  not  quickly  or  fully  seen.  Discussion  and 
appeal  go  on  under  familiar  principles,  old  watch-words, 
current  phrases,  and  patriotic  protestations ;  while  the 
purposes  really  pursued,  and  the  methods  adopted,  have 
very  little  connection  with  the  platforms,  addresses  and 
speeches  with  which  the  public  attention  is  occupied. 
Public  opinion  is  thus  evaded  and  emasculated,  and  in 
place  of  it  we  have  illusion,  delusion,  hypocrisy,  partisan- 
ship, and  self-seeking  of  every  degree  and  order.  Nor 
can  these  parties  be  readily  reconstructed  within  them- 
selves. They  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  shrewd  man- 
agers, who  give  a  large  share  of  their  attention  to  an  in- 
dustrious working  up  of  all  the  means  of  influence,  and  a 
careful  exclusion  of  opponents  from  power.  Exhorta- 
tions to  citizens  to  discharge  their  duties  as  citizens  are 
often  of  no  practical  value.  They  can  accomplish  noth- 
ing without  extended  combination  and  prolonged  effort, 
equivalent,  in  the  zeal,  sagacity  and  expenditure  de- 
manded, to  that  which  they  have  to  overcome.  For  this 
they  have  neither  the  taste  nor  the  time.  If  they  give 
attendance  in  small  numbers  in  primary  meetings,  they 


142 


SOCIOLOGY. 


are  easily  managed,  and  their  opposition  is  made  ridicu- 
lous. A  corrupt  political  party  is  not  readily  shaken  off. 
Though  it  may  have  lost  or  overworn  its  principles,  it 
still  maintains  the  semblance  of  conviction,  and  has  ur- 
gent grounds  of  union  in  the  widely  extended  interests 
of  its  leaders.  Those  who  have  statesmanlike  qualities 
and  maintain  an  active  interest  in  politics  must  bend  of 
necessity  to  these  party  organizations,  and  sustain  them. 
It  is  the  indispensable  condition  of  power.  These  par- 
ties, apparently  held  together  by  political  principles, 
urged  in  a  narrow,  partisan  and  calumnious  way,  are  used 
for  personal  advancement,  and  for  political,  social  and 
economic  monopolies,  even  when  these  ends  are  dis- 
tinctly disclaimed  and  denounced.  The  extent  and  ease 
with  which  the  people  are  hoodwinked  by  political  lead- 
ers are  something  astonishing,  even  in  a  world  of  illusions. 
If  the  working  class  start  on  a  crusade  of  reform,  they 
are  very  likely  to  fall  at  once  into  the  hands  of  dema- 
gogues who  have  no  real  interest  in  them,  and  to  esteem 
lightly  the  only  persons  who  are  able  or  inclined  to  give 
them  sound  counsel. 

The  indestructibility  of  political  parties  greatly  re- 
duces with  us  the  force  of  public  opinion,  and  puts  in  its 
place  the  clamor  and  hypocrisy  of  demagogism.  Poli- 
ticians make  and  misdirect  public  opinion,  and  public 
opinion  finds  itself  too  weak  to  frame  and  handle  its  own 
instruments.  What  Matthew  Arnold  says  of  English 
politics  is  equally  true  in  spirit  here.  "  When  Prince  Bis- 
marck deals  with  Lord  Granville,  he  finds  that  he  is  not 
dealing,  mind  to  mind,  with  an  intelligent  equal,  but  that 
he  is  dealing  with  a  tumult  of  likes  and  dislikes,  hopes 
and  fears,  stock-jobbing,  intrigues,  missionary  interests, 
quidnuncs,  newspapers — dealing  in  short  with  ignorance 
behind  his  intelligent  equal."  When  one  with  us  touches 


ETHICAL  LAW— CUSTOMS  AND  ECONOMICS.          ^ 

politics,  he  touches  he  knows  not  what.  He  is  only  sure 
that  some  very  unexpected  and  remote  interests  and  per- 
sons will  turn  up.  Parties  should  be  frequently  broken 
up,  the  mechanism  of  the  machine-politician  smashed, 
and  the  elements  of  combination  held  in  suspense,  ready 
for  new  purposes. 

In  spite  of  what  has  now  been  said,  a  relatively  sound 
public  opinion  does  exert  with  us  an  immense  control 
and  keep  comparatively  safe  and  wise  the  administration 
of  public  affairs.  Publicity  takes  the  place  of  conscience 
with  the  politician,  and  a  very  effective  conscience  it 
proves  at  times  to  be. 

The  cabinet  system  of  England  pushes  ideas  more  con- 
stantly and  urgently  into  the  foreground  than  does  the 
party  system  of  the  United  States.  The  loss  of  an  idea 
is  the  dissolution  of  a  government,  and  a  reformation 
must  be  secured  under  an  idea.  Policies  win  at  once 
their  proper  potency,  and  the  conflict  momentarily  turns 
on  ideas.  Parties  under  the  leadership  of  politicians  are 
constantly,  on  the  other  hand,  shaking  off  ideas  as  trouble- 
some terms,  are  combining  and  harmonizing  interests, 
and  constructing  a  machine,  in  place  of  rational  incen- 
tives, for  social  management. 

The  political  press  is  a  great  instrument  in  shaping  and 
maintaining  parties.  It  gives  itself  unreservedly  to  their 
success.  It  rarely  speaks  the  truth  with  fulness  and  can- 
dor on  political  topics.  So  much  does  it  fall  short  in  this 
respect,  that  it  becomes  a  matter  of  grave  difficulty  to 
find  out  the  simplest  facts,  covered  up  as  they  are  by  so 
much  distortion  and  suppression  on  all  sides. 

The  ethical  sentiment,  rational  insight,  is  the  one 
power  by  which  the  mal-adjustments  of  the  present  are 
to  be  broken  down,  and  society  perpetually  rebuilt  under 
living  ideas  and  immediate  interests.  If  the  drifting 


144 


SOCIOLOGY. 


fragments  of  the  hour  are  compacted,  like  an  ice-floe,  in 
political  parties,  it  is  still  the  moral  sentiment,  abiding  in 
the  minds  of  men,  that  must  dissolve  them  afresh,  and 
give  movement  to  that  genial,  vivacious  public  opinion 
which,  like  the  air  of  spring,  receives  and  diffuses  vital 
power.  Reason,  no  longer  confounded  with  anarchy, 
should  challenge  every  custom,  build  its  own  structure  on 
the  simply  organic  foundations  of  society,  and  so  lift  the 
lower  in  all  its  ministrations  and  relations  into  a  new 
region  of  light. 

Society  must  often  rid  itself  of  lingering  and  unfit 
customs,  as  the  housewife  shakes  from  her  lap  the  rinds 
and  remainders  of  things  whose  esculent  parts  she  has 
appropriated.  Old  political  parties  express  and  preserve 
in  this  country  the  agglutinative  power  of  self-interest 
and  passion,  and  need,  therefore,  to  be  often  broken  up, 
that  social  and  moral  forces  may  gain  again  constructive 
energy.  Any  new  moral  impulse  should  be  eagerly 
seized  upon  for  this  very  end.  Only  thus  are  the  mate- 
rials of  formation  kept  fluent. 

§  6.  The  relation  of  economic  laws  to  moral  ones  does 
nqt  seem  to  be  intrinsically  obscure,  though  men  have 
often  thrown  it  into  confusion.  The  well-being  of  society 
is  the  product,  not  of  one  set  or  two  sets  of  laws,  working 
absolutely,  but  of  many  sets  of  laws,  modifying  each 
other  in  many  ways.  The  rightful  interaction  of  each 
law  is  as  needful  as  the  action  of  any  law.  It  is  the 
office  of  moral  insight  and  sentiment  in  society  to  see,  in 
connection  with  the  laws  of  exchange,  that  the  condi- 
tions for  their  favorable  operation  are  fully  met.  An 
exchange  of  commodities  and  services  oftentimes  takes 
place  when  these  laws  are  inoperative,  or  very  unfortu- 
nately operative,  owing  to  some  peculiar  inability  or  hard- 
ship of  one  of  the  parties  to  them.  These  laws  take  fort- 


ETHICAL  LAW— CUSTOMS  AND  ECONOMICS.          j^c 

unate  effect,  and  have  full  efficiency,  only  in  an  open 
market.  If,  therefore,  there  is  no  market,  or  the  market 
has  been  tampered  with,  there  is  no  longer  any  appeal 
for  justice  to  the  principles  of  economics  simply.  If  we 
recognize  this  truth  in  the  immense  mass  of  transfers 
which  take  place  in  our  leading  centres  of  exchange, — 
nine-tenths  of  these  transactions  being  fictitious  and  very 
many  of  them  designed  to  control  the  market,  not  to  dis- 
close it — we  may  still  overlook  it  in  those  single  and  ob- 
scure sales  which,  by  their  smallness  and  remoteness,  miss 
the  government  of  economic  law.  One  may  sell  his  labor 
or  purchase  his  subsistence  under  circumstances  which 
forbid  any  competition.  Transactions  which  have  the 
forms  of  a  just  trade  may  lack  its  essential  elements,  as 
far  as  any  correction  of  exaction  is  concerned.  The  pur- 
chaser or  the  seller  may  be  able  to  avail  himself  of  the 
necessities  of  one  who  is  appealing,  not  to  a  market,  but 
to  the  mercies  of  an  individual, — mercies  that  are  laid  aside 
because  of  these  formal  elements  of  a  trade.  One  may 
foreclose  a  mortgage,  and  pass  through  the  legal  forms  of 
an  open  sale,  and  yet  obtain  the  property  involved  very 
much  on  his  own  terms,  because  of  the  impossibility  of 
extemporizing  a  market  at  any  one  point  and  moment. 
He  thus  accepts,  against  good  morals,  the  mere  show  of, 
an  economic  law  when  the  substance  is  wanting.  The 
process  of  sale  is  regarded  as  far  more  sufficient  unto 
itself  than  it  really  is. 

What  economics  really  teaches  us  is  that  the  condi- 
tions of  fair,  desirable  exchange  are  very  delicate  and 
difficult  of  attainment,  and  that,  therefore,  in  our  pursuit 
of  the  well-being  of  men,  we  must  have  these  conditions 
constantly  in  view.  The  law  works  evil,  not  good,  if  its 
first  terms  are  perverted. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  ethical  law  to  impose  on   every  man 
10 


146 


SOCIOLOGY. 


the  duty,  as  far  as  in  him  lies,  to  renew,  generation  by 
generation,  place  by  place,  point  by  point,  fair,  equal, 
general  terms  of  competition,  the  essential  conditions 
under  which  alone  economic  laws  are  fortunate  in  their 
operation.  It  is  a  permanent  duty  of  the  state  to  perpet- 
ually re-establish  the  conditions  of  favorable  production. 
When  any  class  is  permanently  worsted  in  the  competi- 
tion of  trade,  that  class  become  rightfully,  necessarily— 
rightfully  in  themselves,  necessarily  in  reference  to  all— 
an  object  of  solicitude.  It  at  once  accrues  as  an  urgent 
duty,  on  the  part  of  the  state,  to  check  in  all  practical 
ways  such  a  tendency,  and  to  restore,  if  possible,  to  their 
feet  those  who  have  fallen.  That  which  is  the  duty  of 
the  state  is  in  a  measure  the  duty  of  every  citizen  in  the 
state.  The  moral  law  aims  to  impose  this  very  obliga- 
tion— a  conscientious  watchfulness  over  the  fairness  and 
fulness  of  the  terms  under  which  economic  laws  are  tak- 
ing effect ;  the  righteousness  of  the  control  which  is  being 
exercised  under  them ;  the  justness  of  the  conditions 
they  are  bringing  to  each  new  generation,  whose  fortunes 
are  to  be  settled  by  them. 

It  is  not  sufficient  to  say  these  accumulated  results  are 
themselves  a  part  of  competition  ;  we  are  no  more  bound 
to  protect  a  man's  children  than  the  man  himself  from 
the  consequences  of  failure.  Both  bring  a  moral  appeal 
to  us,  and  the  one  class  much  more  strongly  than  the 
other.  It  does  not  belong  to  the  good  Samaritan  to  say, 
The  wounded  man  should  have  taken  another  road.  It 
does  not  belong  to  the  good  citizen  to  say,  These  chil- 
dren's teeth  are  on  edge  because  their  fathers  have  eaten 
sour  grapes.  It  is  a  stroke  of  Providence  in  our  favor, 
bringing  us  one  of  the  opportunities  of  thrifty  habit. 

No  natural  law  calls  for  more  watchful  and  more  loving 
limitation  than  that  of  inheritance.  It  is,  indeed,  a  law, 


ETHICAL  LAW— CUSTOMS  AND  ECONOMICS. 


147 


and  a  beneficent  one,  but  a  law  to  be  cautiously  restrained 
on  this  side  and  improved  on  that  side.  My  house,  or  my 
neighbor's  house,  may  be  burned  up  in  accordance  with 
law.  There  is  no  satisfaction  in  the  mere  fulfilment  of 
law.  Combustion  has  its  methods  in  order  that  it  may  be 
governed  by  means  of  them.  The  accumulated  evils  of 
inheritance  under  economic  laws  are  to  be  studiously 
evaded,  and  this  evasion  is  a  part  of  our  moral  duty. 
Law  here  is  no  more  absolute  than  elsewhere.  This  gen- 
erous supervision,  this  interest,  enlarged  to  the  dimen- 
sions of  society,  and  stretching  out  eagerly  toward  the 
future  of  the  race,  are  the  more  needful  in  connection 
with  labor,  because  labor  is  so  easily,  so  ignorantly,  so 
fatally,  improvident ;  and  because  economic  forces  urge 
it  so  severely  in  descent  and  take  effect  so  slowly  in  ren- 
ovation. Wages  readily  fall,  and  have  but  little  power 
to  rise  again.  Labor  is  more  often  than  otherwise 
trembling  on  the  verge  of  decline  in  a  crowded  market. 
All  mistakes  in  production,  no  matter  with  whom  they 
originate,  come  home  to  labor,  and  the  returning  pros- 
perity is  only  sparingly  shared  by  it.  Labor  profits  by 
the  brisk  demand  of  the  summer,  but  is  left  to  bear  the 
increased  pressure  of  winter  as  best  it  can.  A  railroad, 
scarcely  raising  its  wages  in  the  months  of  traffic,  may 
wish  to  double  up  its  trains  and  discharge  half  its  engi- 
neers in  the  winter  months  of  relaxed  trade.  Many  inevi- 
table blows  are  thus  falling,  much  at  random,  on  labor ; 
and  these  institute  an  unusual  and  urgent  claim  for  spe- 
cial consideration. 

A  third  relation  of  ethical  to  economic  law  is  that  of 
higher,  supplementary  action.  Whatever  we  may  win 
under  production  is  to  be  expended  under  morals.  Pro- 
duction defines  possession,  but  possession  gives  the  basis 
of  benevolence.  Not  till  we  know  what  is  our  own  can 


I48  SOCIOLOGY. 

we  determine  what  we  will  do  with  it.  Economics  settles 
the  antecedent  conditions  of  ethics.  All  that  is  gained 
by  the  one  remains  to  be  used  by  the  other.  To  break 
down  the  laws  by  which  we  win  wealth  is  to  forestall 
good-will ;  but  to  make  these  laws  ultimate  is  to  wipe 
out  good-will.  Each  set  of  laws  is  to  be  beneficently 
applied  within  its  own  realm,  and  in  constant  dependence 
on  the  other  set. 

Muscular  strength  is  habitually  exercised  in  conflict 
with,  and  in  submission  to,  gravitation.  One  stands  erect, 
springs  upward,  runs  forward,  in  resistance  to  weight, 
but  the  weight  gives  the  conditions  of  tension,  that 
against  which  strength  rests,  that  by  which  force  demon- 
strates itself.  Take  away  weight,  and  we  should  loosen 
all  firm  points  in  muscular  agility,  and  our  admirable 
mechanism  would  instantly  fail  of  all  sufficient  use. 

Economics  is  based  on  wise  self-interest,  and  wise 
self-interest  gives  us  all  the  lines  of  tension  that  are  to  be 
bent  and  re-applied  by  good-will.  Good-will  is  good-will 
because  it  undertakes  effort  in  the  interest  of  others, 
and  because  it  concedes  something  in  its  own  interests. 
Economics  and  ethics  play  against  each  other,  and  make 
each  other  effective,  as  gravity  and  cohesion  on  the  one 
side,  and  muscular  force  on  the  other,  give  the  inter- 
lacing actions  of  life.  Neither  set  of  laws  can  be  opera- 
tive without,  at  once,  calling  for  the  other,  and  ministering 
to  it. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ETHICAL  LAW  IN  CONNECTION  WITH  GOVERNMENT  AND 

RELIGION. 

§  I.  OUR  duties  to  our  fellow-men  are  quite  fully 
covered  by  justice  and  benevolence.  Justice  is  the 
recognition  of  all  claims  on  the  part  of  our  fellow-men ; 
benevolence  is  responding,  in  our  action  toward  them,  to 
all  the  incentives  of  good-will,  wisdom  guiding  us  alike 
in  justice  and  benevolence.  Justice  lies  in  the  region  of 
debt,  benevolence  in  that  of  gift.  Not  till  the  claims  of 
justice  have  been  met  is  there  any  opportunity  for  benev- 
olence. 

Claims  arise  from  rights,  and  rights  arise  from  powers. 
If  one's  circle  of  activities  in  the  pursuit  of  his  own  well- 
being  is  broken  in  on,  without  the  warrant  of  sound 
reason,  a  right  has  been  violated,  a  claim  of  justice  set 
aside. 

The  state  deals  preeminently  with  rights,  and  the 
violation  of  rights.  Its  action  does  not,  however,  aim  to 
cover  all  rights.  To  do  this  would  be  impossible,  and  the 
effort  to  do  it  would  tend  to  displace  and  supersede  the 
activity  of  the  individual.  The  state  strives  to  protect 
such  rights  as  are  capable  of  legal  definition  and  protec- 
tion, and  are  also  of  such  a  nature  that  the  individual 
cannot  readily  maintain  them.  The  ethical  field  of 
rights  covers  that  of  civil  law,  and  much  more.  Ex- 
pressed ill-will,  petty  annoyances,  injuries  to  feeling, 
unfit  language,  are  as  much  within  the  moral  law  as 

149 


l$0  SOCIOLOGY. 

robbery  or  violence.  The  civil  law  passes  them  by  as, 
for  the  most  part,  incapable  of  legal  remedy.  The  adult 
man,  by  carelessness  or  insufficient  knowledge,  may 
allow  himself  to  be  cheated  in  various  ways.  The  law  of 
the  state  does  not  strive  to  correct  these  results  of  neg- 
ligence and  ignorance,  deeming  it  the  first  duty  of  every 
man  to  take  care  of  himself,  so  far  as  he  is  capable  of  it. 
Personal  rights  are  only  laxly  watched  over  by  the  state, 
as  its  relief  would  often  be  a  work  of  supererogation,  and, 
still  worse,  would  interfere  unnecessarily  with  the  liberty 
and  moral  responsibility  of  the  individual.  Legal  justice 
is  thus  much  more  narrow  than  ethical  justice.  It  in- 
volves the  same  fundamental  principles,  but  limits  them 
by  two  considerations:  the  degree  in  which  they  ought  to 
be  enforced  by  the  state,  the  degree  in  which  they  can 
be  enforced  by  the  state.  Just  here  arises  one  of  the 
ways  in  which  ethics  enlarges  civil  law.  Many  men  have 
a  legal  conscience.  They  accept  those  obligations  which 
the  state  has  defined  and  enforces,  and  meet  other 
claims  with  reluctance  and  hesitancy.  It  is  in  some  sense 
the  preeminent  office  of  the  moral  nature  to  protect 
these  very  rights,  which  lie  beyond  the  shadow  of  the  law. 
Morality  is  the  penumbra  of  the  law,  as  well  as  the 
inner  shadow  of  the  law  itself. 

§  2.  The  word  justice  has  been  very  closely  associated 
with  the  law  of  the  state,  first,  because  its  chief  obliga- 
tions are  enforced  by  the  state,  and,  secondly,  because 
most  of  the  discussions  which  have  developed  the  idea  of 
justice  have  been  judicial.  It  is  not  easy  to  overestimate 
the  importance  of  that  ethical  development  which  has 
attended  on  the  practical  administration  of  justice  by  the 
state.  There  is  no  continuous  movement  in  morals 
comparable  with  that  dating  back  to  the  rise  of  Roman 
law,  and  reaching  our  time  in  a  comparatively  unbroken 


E THICAL  LA  W—GO  VERNMENT  AND  RELIGION,      j  c  j 

sequence.  For  depth  of  insight  into  principles,  for 
coherence  of  principles,  for  acuteness  in  the  discrimina- 
tion of  secondary  differences,  for  fulness  and  variety  in 
the  circumstances  contemplated,  no  growth  in  moral 
theory  is  superior' to  that  which  has  taken  place  in  law. 

It  was  not  without  reason  that  Ulpian  defined  jurispru- 
dence as  "  the  knowledge  of  things  human  and  divine, 
the  science  of  the  just  and  the  unjust ;  "  or  that  Cicero 
regarded  the  study  of  the  law  as  derived  from  the  depths 
of  philosophy,  personal  and  social. 

The  discussion  of  rights  has  been  fundamental  and 
untiring  in  law.  It  has  proceeded  from  the  most  obvious 
claims  connected  with  property  and  with  personal  safety 
to  the  most  subtile  obligations  springing  from  the  rela- 
tion of  one  thing  to  another,  as  the  dependence  of  one 
piece  of  land  for  access,  for  water,  for  light,  on  adjoining 
land  ;  or  of  one  person  on  another,  as  of  the  community 
on  a  public  carrier.  Law  has  not  only  watched  over 
primitive  rights,  but  given  immeasurable  extension  to 
them,  as  in  the  right  of  bequest.  There  has  been  almost 
wantonness  in  its  eager  enlargement  of  personal  power 
in  this  particular. 

Property  rights  have  always  gained  defence  in  advance 
of  personal  rights.  Personal  rights  have  been  treated  in 
the  outset  as  a  branch  of  property  rights.  An  injury  to  a 
person  was  redressed  by  a  fine,  and  the  family  or  the 
community  was  conceived  as  having  a  kind  of  ownership 
in  the  lives  and  strength  of  its  members.  The  property 
conception,  as  itself  more  definite,  has  been  used  to  give 
definiteness  to  personal  rights. 

As  society  has  advanced,  criminal  law  has  cast  its  pro- 
tection more  carefully  over  the  individual,  has  looked 
upon  the  individual  as  less  himself  the  seat  of  power  and 
defence,  and  has  separated  individuals, — as  the  wife  and 


152 


SOCIOLOGY. 


the  child,  and  the  servant — from  the  particular  relations 
that  cover  them.  Civil  law  has  pushed  in  the  same 
direction,  and  allowed  ownership  to  attach  to  intangible 
commodities,  as  to  a  good-will  or  a  good  name.  Subtile 
inquiry  has  attended  on  the  questions,  What  constitutes 
possession?  Under  what  conditions  do  rights  take 
effect,  and  surround  ownership,  as  an  invisible  presence 
of  law  ? 

The  laws  of  evidence  are  also  an  example  of  this  in- 
cisive thought,  this  careful  forecast  of  consequences, 
applied  to  practical  morals.  Next  to  the  facts  them- 
selves, morality  is  most  interested  in  a  safe  and  sufficient 
proof  of  the  facts.  Its  hold  on  them  is  through  the 
proof;  and  the  mind  is  braced  against  prejudice,  fortified 
against  hasty  inference,  and  led  to  carefully  cover  the 
whole  field  by  the  laws  of  evidence. 

The  soundness  of  the  moral  sense  which  has  governed 
jurisprudence  is  in  nothing  more  conspicuous  than  in 
legal  maxims.  They  are  numerous,  broad,  full  of  insight, 
and  mutually  corrective.  They  rest  on  the  two  supports 
of  law,  abstract  principles  on  the  one  hand,  and  practical 
necessities  on  the  other.  These  two  terms,  theory  and 
practice,  hold  between  them  judicial  decisions  in  remark- 
able equilibrium. 

This  is  illustrated  in  the  maxim,  Where  there  is  a 
right  there  is  a  remedy.  The  gist  of  it  is  that  where  no 
remedy  is  possible,  no  right  will  be  recognized.  The  legal 
recognition  of  a  right  and  the  provision  of  a  remedy  must 
go  together.  Otherwise,  law  ceases  to  be  positive  law, 
and  becomes  pure  morality,  which  one  may  or  may  not 
obey.  The  law  confesses  its  duty  and  its  own  impotence 
in  the  same  breath.  . 

The  maxim,  Ignorance  of  the  law  does  not  excuse  its 
violation,  arises  from  a  like  recognition  of  the  necessity 


ETHICAL  LAW— GOVERNMENT  AND  RELIGION. 


153 


of  the  case.  Ignorance  can  easily  be  alleged,  and  knowl- 
edge is  difficult  of  proof.  The  law  also  recognizes  in  this 
maxim  the  close  affiliation  of  legal  claims  with  moral 
claims,  and  the  duty  of  the  subject,  in  each  case,  to  be 
alive  to  them.  When  ignorance  of  the  law  is  allowed  as 
a  sufficient  plea,  it  is  ignorance  that  can  be  presumed 
from  obvious  facts, — as  the  ignorance  of  a  woman  or  of  a 
child.  The  law  does  not  allow  itself  to  be  involved  in 
the  embarrassments  which  accompany  the  proof  of 
knowledge. 

The  manner  in  which  the  law  unites  intrinsic  justice  to 
ease  of  procedure  is  shown  in  the  two  maxims,  An  act 
does  not  make  a  man  guilty  unless  the  intention  goes 
with  it ;  Acts  disclose  intentions.  The  first  maxim  looks 
to  justice,  the  second  to  ease  of  enforcement.  If  one 
does  what  is  wrong  in  form,  the  presumption  is  that  it 
is  also  wrong  in  intention.  This  presumption  must  be 
overcome  by  proof. 

When  so  intractable  a  maxim  as  this,  The  king  can 
do  no  wrong,  finds  entrance,  the  opposite  maxim,  equally 
intractable,  is  admitted,  The  ministers  of  the  crown 
are  responsible  for  all  mal-administration.  A  most  im- 
portant chapter  in  constitutional  government  turns  on 
this  correction  of  the  one  principle  by  the  other. 

The  wise  temper  of  the  law  is  disclosed  in  its  maxims 
of  interpretation  :  Words  are  to  be  so  understood  that 
the  object  proposed  shall  be  attained,  rather  than  that  it 
shall  fail ;  In  doubtful  cases  the  more  benign  interpre- 
tation shall  prevail;  Alienation  is  favored  by  the  law 
rather  than  accumulation  ;  The  law  does  not  demand 
impossibilities ;  Regard  is  to  be  had  to  the  public  welfare 
in  the  highest  laws ;  The  reason  of  the  law  ceasing,  the 
law  itself  ceases. 

A  purely  legal  and  protective  disposition  is  shown  in 


154 


SOCIOLOGY. 


the  maxims,  No  man  is  bound  to  accuse  himself ;  Every 
man  is  held  to  be  innocent  till  proved  to  be  guilty ;  A 
man  shall  not  be  twice  vexed  for  one  and  the  same  thing. 

The  steady  growth  of  international  law  is  a  most  hope- 
ful proof  of  the  inherent  power  of  sound  moral  principles. 
Jurisprudence  is  made  to  rest  on  reason,  and  flourishes  in 
new  strength  and  extension  as  the  soil  of  reason  deepens. 
Starting  with  the  idea,  that  rights  lie  only  between  citi- 
zens, and  are  there  very  much  modified  by  status,  it  has 
reached  the  idea,  that  they  extend  everywhere  to  every 
man,  and  that  they  lie  between  man  and  man,  nation  and 
nation,  on  the  same  eternal  principles.  In  international 
law,  as  the  law  lacks  direct  enforcement,  law  and  moral 
obligation  meet  on  one  ground. 

§  3.  We  may  well  doubt  whether  there  is  any  other 
direction  in  which  the  principles  of  pure  morality  have 
been  so  consistently,  thoroughly  and  successfully  applied 
as  in  this  direction  of  jurisprudence.  Yet,  in  spite  of 
this  very  important  fact,  civil  law  has  been  very  far  from 
perfect  in  doing  its  work.  We  may  by  no  means  call 
government  and  the  practical  administration  of  justice 
failures,  for  our  civilization  has  at  every  stage  of  prog- 
ress been,  in  a  high  degree,  dependent  on  them.  Yet, 
if  we  consider  the  three  great  desiderata  in  a  successful 
application  xof  sound  law,  certainty,  expedition  and  ease, 
our  judicial  procedure  has  been  a  very  grave  and  a  very 
general  and  a  very  protracted  failure.  No  one  of  these 
essentials  is  fairly  well  and  frequently  met.  Law  is  ex- 
ceedingly uncertain,  exceedingly  slow,  and  exceedingly 
costly — that  is,  difficult — in  administration.  The  practi- 
cal lessons  which  it  impresses  on  most  men  are,  Endure 
any  ordinary  injuries  rather  than  seek  redress  from  the  law ; 
Meddle  as  little  as  possible  with  the  enforcement  of  law, 
and  expect  as  little  as  possible  from  it.  How  often  is 


E  THICAL  LA  W—GO  VERNMENT  AND  RELIGION,      j  5  5 

the  law  used  as  a  convenient  instrument  of  private 
malice  ;  as  a  handy  dog,  kept  at  the  public  expense,  with 
which  to  worry  one's  enemies. 

Why  is  this  ?  Especially,  why  is  it,  when  we  have 
found  occasion  to  insist  on  the  pervasively  practical  tem- 
per of  the  law,  its  constant  tendency  to  aim  only  at  the 
possible  ?  Galton,  in  his  Inquiries  into  Human  Fac- 
ulty, makes  this  statement :  "  Lord  Campbell,  in  his  pref- 
ace to  the  Lives  of  the  Chancellors,  says :  '  There  is  no 
office  in  the  history  of  any  nation  that  has  been  filled 
with  such  a  long  succession  of  distinguished  and  interest- 
ing men  as  the  office  of  Lord  Chancellor/  and  that, 
*  generally  speaking,  the  most  eminent  men,  if  not  the 
most  virtuous,  have  been  selected  to  adorn  it.'  His  im- 
plied disparagement  of  their  piety  as  a  class,  up  to  very 
recent  times,  is  fully  sustained  by  an  examination  of  their 
respective  biographies,  and  by  a  taunt  of  Horace  Wai- 
pole,  quoted  in  the  same  preface.  An  equal  absence  of 
remarkable  devotional  tendencies  may  be  observed  in  the 
lives  of  the  leaders  of  political  parties  of  former  genera- 
tions." '  Galton  is  drawing  attention  to  this  absence  of 
piety  for  ends  of  his  own.  We  draw  attention  to  the  im- 
plied weakness  of  pure  moral  impulses  as  helping,  in  part, 
to  explain  the  signal  failure  of  law  in  the  very  beneficent 
purposes  which  fall  to  it,  a  failure  the  more  remarkable 
because  of  the  value  of  the  principles  which  accompany 
its  theoretical  development.  Law  has  been  unfolded  on 
its  technical,  professional,  theoretical  side,  and  this 
though  the  process  has  involved  the  constant  recognition 
of  practical  limits  of  which  we  have  spoken.  In  use  and 
methods  of  use,  it  has  not  been  inspired  by  benevolence. 
Astute  intellectual  powers,  dispassionate  justice,  even- 

*  Page  287. 


156 


SOCIOLOGY. 


handed  administration  of  a  subtile  system,  have  taken  the 
place  of  extended  good-will.  Justice,  when  it  separates 
itself  in  administration  from  the  wider,  holier  temper  of 
benevolence,  fails.  The  theory  may  be  correct,  possibly 
the  more  correct  because  of  the  want  of  any  sympathy  in 
its  critical  construction;  but  in  its  practical  use  in  the 
community  it  does  a  very  poor  and  imperfect  work.  Ob- 
scure, complex  and  slow,  it  drags  its  painful  length  along 
to  no  beneficent  end.  The  well-being  of  men  in  practical 
jurisprudence  has  all  along  called  for  a  fresh  development 
of  the  simple  impulse  of  good-will  in  those  who  have  the 
law  in  hand — a  temper  prompting  a  more  tender  and  di- 
rect use  of  means  for  the  very  comprehensive  purposes 
before  them,  and  a  constant  adaptation  of  methods  to  the 
very  plain,  instant,  urgent  wants  of  men  at  large.  The 
undue  hold  of  professional  sentiment,  the  force  of  legal 
custom,  eager  interest  in  an  intellectual  tournament,  and 
pride  in  the  symmetry  of  a  system,  should  all  be  softened 
by  virtue,  a  heedful  response  to  human  happiness.  Jus- 
tice fails  when  those  who  administer  justice  to  men  are 
not  entering  into  the  full  circle  of  human  experience. 
Less  astuteness  and  more  beneficence  would  make  far 
wiser  men. 

The  ability  and  astuteness  of  the  chancellors  of  Eng- 
land have  not  prevented  their  devising  and  enforcing 
methods  in  which  many  of  the  highest  interests  of  society 
have  been  hopelessly  entangled.  A  little  more  benefi- 
cence would  have  been  productive  of  much  more  fortu- 
nate and  safe  results. 

§  4.  The  improvement  of  government  should  come 
under  the  clear,  moral  reason,  sustained  by  common  sense 
and  wide  experience.  Among  the  gains  of  thought 
should  be  the  effort,  first,  to  make  law  simple  and  clear 
in  form,  and  easy  and  direct  in  execution.  No  gains  in 


ETHICAL  LAW— GOVERNMENT  AND  RELIGION. 


157 


these  particulars  should  be  despised.  As  now  consti- 
tuted, civil  law  in  English  races  is  composed  of  two  very 
independent  and  very  unlike  elements,  customary  law 
and  statute  law.  These  are  heterogeneous,  and  more  or 
less  conflicting,  terms.  Reason  and  conservatism  are  on 
the  side  of  judicial  law,  unreason  and  radicalism  on  the 
side  of  legislative  law.  They  strike  into  each  other  much 
at  random,  with  little  breadth  of  view  or  concurrence  of 
end.  The  statute  may  be  undone  by  the  decisions  of  the 
courts  under  it,  and  the  decisions  of  the  courts  may,  in  an 
unduly  conservative  temper,  fail  to  meet  existing  exigen- 
cies. Courts,  professionally  and  historically  slow  and 
cautious  in  movement,  are  still  further  delayed  in  reform 
by  the  weighty  fact  and  portentous  phrase,  "  Vested  inter- 
ests "  ;  by  an  unwillingness  to  give  an  increasing  sense  of 
insecurity  to  law,  and  by  the  danger  that  a  decision, 
sound  in  itself,  would  yet  fail  to  be  followed,  and  so  to 
become  law. 

Legislation  ought,  if  possible,  to  be  the  product  of 
broad,  sound,  progressive,  judicial  sentiment ;  and  such 
sentiment  ought,  if  possible,  to  be  able  to  declare  itself, 
and  to  pass  speedily  and  easily  into  law.  The  legislature 
is  bold  in  its  ignorance,  and  the  courts  are  timid  in  their 
knowledge,  and  each  must  be  so  from  the  nature  of  the 
case.  Thus  the  government  goes  forward  limpingly  on 
legs  unequal.  A  codification  of  law,  a  modification  of  it 
in  principle  and  in  practice,  in  reference  to  greater  service- 
ableness  ought  to  proceed  under  the  direction  of  clear, 
well-trained  judicial  minds,  and  at  the  same  time  with  the 
prompt  and  peremptory  authority  of  a  legislature.  Coun- 
sel and  action  which  have  fallen  apart  should  be  re- 
united. Nor,  if  this  end  were  once  distinctly  proposed, 
would  there  be  found  any  great  practical  difficulty  in 
accomplishing  it.  The  insight  of  the  court-room  and  its 


158 


SOCIOLOGY. 


mastery  of  principles  are  now  in  a  large  degree  lost,  while 
the  well-meaning  facility  of  the  legislature  is  made  to  in- 
crease the  general  confusion.  The  conservatism  of  the 
courts  is  inseparable  from  the  courts,  and  the  ignorance 
of  the  legislature  is  inseparable  from  the  legislature. 
Both  the  experience  and  knowledge  requisite  for  the  im- 
provement of  so  extended  and  so  delicate  a  system  as 
that  of  civil  law  are  necessarily  wanting  in  the  promiscu- 
ous assemblies  of  legislation.  The  courts,  on  the  other 
hand,  when,  in  the  discharge  of  duty,  they  approach  a 
commanding  outlook  of  principles,  and  have  an  ex- 
tended forecast  of  possible  reforms,  with  stern  forbear- 
ance pass  them  all  by,  and  allow  them  all  to  sink  back 
into  darkness,  scrupulously  confining  their  attention  to 
the  precise  point  before  them.  If  the  law  is  to  become  a 
simplified  and  progressive  system,  one  rooted  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  past,  and  at  the  same  time  sensitively 
cognizant  .of  the  wants  of  the  present,  this  result  must  be 
reached  by  a  better  union  of  judicial  counsel  and  legisla- 
tive action.  We  shall  thus  turn  unreason  into  reason, 
and  reason  into  good-will. 

§  5.  Law  must  aim,  under  the  moral  sense,  not  only  at  t 
justice  between  citizen  and  citizen,  class  and  class,  as  the 
state  finds  them,  but  also,  as  a  second  effort,  at  a  per- 
petual renewal  of  all  the  conditions  of  free,  full,  fair 
action  between  men,  as  these  have  been  narrowed  or 
unfavorably  altered  by  the  successes  and  defeats  of 
the  past.  It  is  not  enough  to  give  a  man  what  he 
actually  wins,  it  should  be  the  aim  of  law  to  restore  in 
each  generation,  at  all  points,  relatively  equal  terms  for 
winning  what  the  world  has  to  offer.  Defeats  are  not 
to  be  permanent,  losses  remediless,  through  successive 
generations  and  between  fresh  competitors.  The  whole 
drift  of  law,  therefore,  must  be  corrective  of  the  over- 


E  THICAL  LA  W—GO  VERNMENT  AND  RELIGION,      i  5 g 

shadowing  power  which  so  easily  falls  to  a  few,  and 
restorative,  with  unwearied  watchfulness,  of  the  condi- 
tions of  hopeful  labor  to  the  masses  of  men.  If  opportu- 
nity itself  is  not  protected,  it  is  a  small  matter  for  many 
men  that  the  gains  of  opportunity  are  cared  for.  It  is 
the  tender  germs  of  effort  that  call  for  safety  more  than 
the  later  procedure  of  stalwart  men.  Yet  law  is  very 
likely  to  give  its  chief  protection  to  those  who  least 
require  it.  If  it  is  well  that  justice  should  be  blind  as  to 
narrow,  personal  interests,  it  is  most  needful  that  she 
should  have  a  wide  insight  into  interests  as  they  are 
combined  in  the  general  welfare. 

Government,  enlarged  in  its  purpose  by  the  moral 
reason,  should  see  and  feel  that  protection  and  growth 
are  inseparable.  To  secure  growth  is  to  offer  the  most 
complete  protection,  and  protection  is  chiefly  valuable  as 
a  condition  of  growth.  The  citizen  who  is  helped  in  suc- 
cessful effort  will  soon  make  but  slight  claims  on  protec- 
tion, and  one  who  is  left  in  adversity  will  render  protec- 
tion burdensome  and  unproductive.  The  cheapest  and 
most  effective  way  to  protect  state  against  state,  class 
against  class  within  the  state,  is  to  provide  the  condi- 
tions of  growth.  Strong,  living  forces  anticipate  disease  ; 
feeble  forces  contract  it,  in  spite  of  all  formal  remedies. 
A  state,  therefore,  that  builds  itself  up  on  the  doctrine 
of  protection,  narrowly  applied,  is  sure  to  fall  into  every 
form  of  chronic  weakness,  and  to  find  the  core  of  its 
effort  to  be  the  laborious  cure  of  evils  by  houses  of 
correction,  poor  laws,  and  punishments.  Aid  is  not  to 
be  attacked  because  it  may  be  unwise  aid,  or  oversight 
because  it  may  be  injudicious  oversight.  Wise  aid  and 
judicious  oversight  may  still  be  most  profitable  in  giving 
the  best  social,  economic,  civil  conditions  for  the  devel- 
opment of  all  classes  ;  in  spreading  knowledge  and  enter- 


l6o  SOCIOLOGY. 

prise  through  the  entire  community.  This,  and  not 
mere  protection,  is  the  proper  aim  of  civil  construction. 
Mere  protection  is  one  of  those  purposes  that  perish  by 
virtue  of  their  own  poverty,  as  all  correction  fails  that  is 
simply  renewed  punishment.  In  all  wisdom  there  is  a 
large  diffusion  of  benevolence  as  well  as  of  justice. 
Neither  justice  nor  benevolence  can  maintain  its  highest 
power  without  the  other.  The  history  of  the  world 
abundantly  confirms  this  statement.  Justice  without 
good-will  becomes  a  hard,  dry  technic,  that  misses  its  end 
in  reaching  it. 

The  sentiment  of  our  time  sets  strongly  in  favor  of 
individuation.  Many  are  willing  to  reduce  the  powers 
and  duties  of  the  state  to  their  lowest  terms.  The 
movement  is  reactionary,  and  shares  the  excess  of  reac- 
tion. It  is  willing  to  let  great  and  beneficent  powers 
that  belong  to  combination  lie  dormant ;  powers  which 
may  be  exercised  not  only  in  consistency  with  individual 
liberty,  but  in  furtherance  of  it.  Moreover,  much  of  the 
reformatory  legislation  that  is  urged  upon  us  lies  strictly 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  protection.  The  weak  and 
the  poor  have  greatly  lacked  protection  at  the  very 
points  at  which  it  is  most  needful.  The  wiser  forms  of 
legislation  are  not  to  be  set  aside  by  a  general  formula, 
affirming  excessive  legislation. 

§  6.  It  remains  to  consider  the  relation  of  morality  and 
religion.  We  need  again  to  be  reminded  of  the  very 
broad  meaning  in  which  the  word  morality  is  used.  It 
stands  for  all  fruitfulness  in  guidance  of  the  moral  reason, 
exercised  toward  questions  of  conduct  and  character. 
The  spiritual  order  is  ethical,  that  of  mind  with  mind, 
heart  with  heart ;  that  of  rational  life  under  the  terms  of 
that  life. 

The   ethical   idea  more   immediately   and    frequently 


ETHICAL  LA  W—GO  VERNMENT  AND  RELIGION.      j  6 r 

found  working  its  way  in  religion  is  that  of  benevolence. 
We  need  not,  for  our  present  purposes,  carry  our  discus- 
sion beyond  the  Christian  system.  The  higher  religious 
impulses  of  tne  world  are  so  swallowed  up  in  this  faith, 
and  find  such  pre-eminent  expression  in  it,  that  it  may 
easily  stand  for  the  best  phase  of  religious  movement. 
The  renovation  needed  in  other  forms  of  faith  is  too 
manifest  to  be  urged.  Looked  at  from  a  moral  point  of 
view,  there  is  no  other  such  influential  sentiment  in 
Christianity  as  that  of  benevolence — good-will  within 
and  without  the  household  of  faith.  Many  forms  of 
benevolence  sprang  at  once  out  of  Christianity,  have 
accompanied  its  history  in  its  darkest  periods,  and  have 
attended  upon  it  in  increased  variety  and  productiveness 
in  its  modern  forms.  Yet  benevolence  in  the  Church,  as 
a  principle  in  morals,  has  not  been  developed  in  the 
same  coherent,  laborious,  thoughtful,  consecutive  way  in 
which  the  allied  principle  of  justice  has  been  unfolded  in 
the  state.  The  movement  has  been  more  broken,  less 
continuously  progressive.  Indeed,  it  suffered  in  the  mid- 
dle ages  retrogression,  both  in  the  purity  of  its  spirit  and 
in  the  wisdom  of  its  methods.  Alms-giving  became  a 
supererogatory  work,  and  was  often  performed  with  very 
little  consideration  of  the  real  advantage  of  the  recipients. 
The  reasons  for  the  slower  development  of  the  law  of 
benevolence  are  obvious.  The  natural  order  of  sequence 
is  first  justice,  then  benevolence  ;  and  under  the  wants  of 
the  state,  a  steady  and  continuous  pressure  is  maintained 
in  behalf  of  justice.  The  second  commandment  of  love 
requires  a  very  broad  and  very  deep  and  very  wisely  in- 
terpreted experience  for  its  just  unfolding  and  safe  ap- 
plication. A  measurably  correct  idea  of  character  a 
sound,  social  ideal,  and  rich  and  voluminous  affections 
must  be  present  to  direct  and  sustain  this  command. 


1 62  SOCIOLOGY. 

Social  experience  is  gained  slowly,  and  calls  for  infinite 
enlargement  and  correction  in  details.  Social  science  is 
supremely  the  seat  of  wisdom,  and  makes  the  largest 
possible  demand  on  insight,  inquiry  and  good-will. 
While  the  first  command  of  love  toward  God  gives  the 
most  needful  impulse  to  obedience,  to  the  second  com- 
mand, love  toward  men,  the  full  force  of  this  impulse  will 
not  be  felt  till  we  rightly  conceive  the  divine  character. 
This  character,  in  turn,  is  to  be  disclosed  to  us  very 
largely  by  a  deep  penetration  of  the  moral  temper  and 
government  of  the  world.  Wise  benevolence  is  thus  the 
consummation  of  human  thought  and  affection,  and  is  to 
be  looked  for  only  as  the  final  fruit  of  long  and  patient 
discipline. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  the  superficiality  of  the  underlying 
feeling  in  the  benevolence  of  the  Christian  Church,  in 
spite  of  the  frequent  unwisdom  of  its  methods  of  expres- 
sion, it  may  be  doubted  whether  this  chanty  has  not 
gone  more  directly  to  its  end,  the  amelioration  of  society, 
than  has  the  unsparing  justice  of  the  state.  The  spon- 
taneity of  the  virtue  of  benevolence,  its  tender  sentiment, 
have  elevated  the  minds  of  men,  and  borne  forward  their 
steps,  quite  as  much  as  the  cold  correctness  of  principles 
in  legal  procedure. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  exact  balance  of  ad- 
vantages between  these  two  forms  of  growth,  justice 
and  good-will,  it  is  very  plain  that  the  benevolence  of  the 
Church  has  lost  much  from  failing  to  recognize  fully  and 
broadly  the  principles  of  justice  which  should  underlie 
its  own  gifts.  Chanty  that  does  not  rest  on  justice  in 
many  ways  undoes  itself.  While  there  is  no  law  higher, 
or  of  more  constant  application,  than  this  of  helpfulness, 
it  must  be  made  to  supplement  and  not  to  suspend  the 
still  more  fundamental  law  of  self-help.  He  that  will  not 


ETHICAL  LAW— GOVERNMENT  AND  RELIGION. 


I63 


work  shall  not  eat,  gives  us,  as  a  concise  assertion,  a 
shore  line  in  all  spiritual  topography.  If  we  sin  against 
this  law  of  justice  we  rub  out  and  abolish  all  boundaries, 
equally  of  justice  and  benevolence.  Benevolence  that  is 
permeated  with  the  sentiment  of  justice  is,  in  its  wisdom 
and  practical  beneficence,  at  a  very  far  remove  from  the 
sudden  good-will  of  a  simply  sympathetic  mind.  The  par- 
tial failure  of  the  benevolence  of  the  Church,  and  its  want 
of  steady  growth  in  this  benign  temper,  have  been  due 
to  a  failure  in  moral  insight,  in  a  mastery  of  the  princi- 
ples which  bind  men  together  in  society.  The  moiety  of 
morality,  that  of  good-will,  which  has  fallen  to  religion, 
like  the  other  moiety,  that  of  justice,  committed  to  the 
state,  has  been  delayed  in  development,  and  has  in  part 
miscarried,  because  of  the  want  of  a  thoroughly  coherent 
moral  movement  in  the  minds  of  religious  men. 

The  demand  in  anything  like  an  ideal  state  is,  that 
there  shall  be  no  well-directed  labor  without  a  suitable 
reward,  and  no  reward  without  corresponding  labor, 
labor  and  reward  alike  having  reference  to  the  common 
weal.  Reward  should  be  uniformly  the  stimulus  of 
labor.  Excessive  rewards  at  any  one  point  and  the  con- 
sequent deficiency  of  rewards  at  other  points  enfeeble  in- 
dustry, and  set  all  its  impulses  at  cross  purposes.  It  is  a 
primary  office  of  good-will  to  keep  the  incentives  of  labor 
sound  and  wholesome,  and  so  to  give  the  laws  of  protec- 
tion beneficent  operation.  Benevolence  does  not  sus- 
pend economic  forces,  it  gives  them  full  sweep. 

§  7.  When  we  charge  the  Christian  Church,  during  its 
long  and,  with  all  its  failures,  most  beneficent  develop- 
ment, with  marked  deficiencies  in  morality,  it  is  of  the 
utmost  moment  that  our  exact  meaning  should  be  under- 
stood, otherwise  we  shall  do  little  to  correct  the  evil. 
We  believe  the  spirituality,  rationality,  morality  of  the 


164 


SOCIOLOGY. 


words  of  Christ  to  be  complete.  We  believe  it,  because 
these  words,  fairly  and  broadly  interpreted,  seem  to  us 
to  open  the  very  fountains  of  individual  and  social  life. 
We  know  nothing,  in  this  direction,  above  them  or  be- 
yond them.  We  seem  to  have  seen  the  sun,  and  the 
glory  of  it  is  very  great.  Our  vision  is  filled  and  flooded 
by  it.  We  ask  for  no  more  light,  and  we  can  use  no 
more.  Our  ultimate  ground  of  acceptance  is  the  joy 
brought  to  our  own  lives  and  the  life  of  the  race.  This 
is  the  satisfactory  ground  of  faith,  and  while  it  is  far 
more  excellent  than  any  other,  we  believe  it  also  to  be 
more  sound  than  any  other,  and  as  truly  humble. 

That  which  we  speak  of  in  Christian  faith  as  having 
been  immoral  is  not,  then,  the  words  of  Christ,  but  the 
convictions  of  the  Church  concerning  them,  and  its 
method  of  use  in  successive  generations.  The  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  is  not  framed  at  once,  any  more  in  theory 
than  in  practice,  nor  by  any  one  branch  of  the  Church. 
The  gospel  men  are  dealing  with  as  much  transcends 
their  conception  of  it  as  do  the  actual  facts  of  the  world 
the  statements  of  them  at  any  one  time  current  among 
us.  When  we  criticise  science  we  are  criticising  the  con- 
clusions which  stand  with  us  for  science  ;  we  are  not 
criticising  the  facts  of  the  universe.  When  we  criticise 
the  Christian  religion  we  are,  in  like  manner,  inquiring 
into  the  justness  and  sufficiency  of  the  way  in  which  the 
Christian  Church  has  rendered  the  mind  of  Christ.  We 
are  striking  for  the  truth  and  not  against  it ;  we  are  lis- 
tening to  the  Master,  not  turning  from  him. 

With  these  limitations  steadily  in  mind,  we  have  no 
hesitation  in  saying  that  the  Christian  Church,  in  every 
period  and  every  phase  of  it,  has  contained  elements  of 
immorality  which  it  has  had  occasion  to  discover  and 
cast  out.  Indeed  this  was  inevitable  ;  and  without  re- 


E THICAL  LA  W—GO  VERNMENT  AND  RELIGION.      \  65 

proach,  when  suitable  activity  in  correction  has  accom- 
panied the  evil.  We  will  pass  in  rapid  survey  a  few  of 
these  anti-spiritual  phases  of  thought  in  the  Christian 
Church. 

The  Christian  Church  has  been,  in  very  much  of  its 
development,  intolerant  of  free  inquiry ;  at  times  it  has 
been  intensely  intolerant,  and  it  still  retains  something 
of  this  intolerance.  This  is  a  very  profound  sin  against 
morality,  the  freedom  of  spiritual  life.  There  is  no  more 
fundamental  right  in  that  life,  no  more  weighty  duty  laid 
upon  it,  than  the  right  and  the  duty  to  think,  to  use  our 
powers  under  their  own  laws.  This  primitive  possession 
from  the  hand  of  God,  the  Church  has  striven  to  limit, 
and  even  at  times  to  take  away.  This  is  to  be  intensely 
unjust,  and  intensely  immoral.  The  one  claim  and  right 
of  moral  life — of  rational  life — is  to  be  thoroughly 
rational,  to  have  the  full  liberty  of  thought.  It  allows 
no  human  being  by  way  of  obtrusion  to  enter  the  soul's 
inheritance  of  truth,  and  of  action  under  the  truth.  The 
Church  has  missed  this  moral  principle  and  missed  it 
strangely.  It  has  been  compelled  to  assert  it  in  one 
relation  while  denying  it  in  other  directions ;  to  assert 
it  for  itself  collectively  while  withholding  it  from  the  in- 
dividual ;  to  concede  it  to  leaders  while  withdrawing  it 
from  disciples.  Thus  the  Church  has  fallen  into  the  most 
immoral  of  all  principles,  the  essential  inequality  of  hu- 
man rights. 

This  intolerance  in  part  sprang  from  the  conviction — 
and  has  helped  to  confirm  it — that  religious  doctrines 
may  be  framed  into  a  comparatively  complete  and  un- 
changeable system  of  truth.  This  conviction,  in  view  of 
the  vast  variety  of  Christian  beliefs,  is  very  uncharitable, 
and,  we  must  also  think,  very  stupid.  The  practical  im- 
moralities to  which  it  has  led  are  seen,  not  simply  in  the 


l66  SOCIOLOGY. 

persecutions  which  have  accompanied  it,  but  in  the  many 
forms  of  oppression  and  wrong  for  which  atonement  has 
been  found  in  preaching  the  gospel.  Thus  the  Spanish 
hidalgo  carried  into  the  New  World  the  offer  of  salvation 
in  one  hand  and  utter  ruin  in  the  other.  A  mysterious 
and  superstitious  power  was  assigned  to  a  formal  accept- 
ance of  faith,  quite  aside  from  any1  hold  it  might  have  on 
the  thoughts  and  affections.  This  is  the  absolute  sub- 
version of  godliness.  A  community  is  made  to'thrive  on 
faith  and  on  slavery  and  every  form  of  tyranny  at  the 
same  instant.  A  certain  strength  of  orthodoxy  has 
been  found  in  our  Southern  States  not  common  in  the 
North. 

§  8.  The  spirit  of  asceticism,  which  has  at  times  so  pre- 
vailed in  the  Church,  is  plainly,  in  the  broad  sense  of  the 
word,  an  immoral  one.  It  fails  to  recognize  either  the 
true  direction,  or  the  true  conditions,  of  individual  and 
social  growth.  It  turns  from  the  world  about  us,  and 
puts  itself  at  war  with  it,  instead  of  uniting  with  its  dis. 
ciplinary,  corrective,  constructive  forces  in  that  common 
work,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  When  this  spirit  be- 
comes not  simply  one  of  self-denial,  but  of  self-torture, 
inflicting  gratuitous  sufferings  of  every  degree  of  severity^ 
it  misconceives  everything — the  character  of  God,  the 
constitution  of  the  world  in  which  we  are,  and  bur  own 
constitution  ;  the  nature  of  virtue  and  our  relations  to 
our  fellow-men.  A  fever  is  not  more  unlike  the  warmth 
of  health  than  is  the  disturbed,  excitable  temper  of  ascet- 
icism unlike  the  cheerfulness  and  repose  of  righteousness. 
The  partial  and  figurative  antagonism  of  the  pure  mind 
to  the  world,  in  some  of  its  sensuous  phases,  is  made  to 
stand  for  a  deep,  literal  fact,  altering  the  entire  character 
of  human  life,  and  putting  it  on  an  artificial  and  fanatical 
basis. 


ETHICAL  LAW— GOVERNMENT  AND  RELIGION. 


I67 


Its  effect  on  the  conception  of  God  is  seen  in  Dante's 
Inferno.  The  ingenuity  and  invention  of  the  poet,  with 
a  magnificent  stretch  of  power,  are  put  to  the  task  of 
following  Omnipotence  in  the  device  and  infliction  of 
varied  and  extreme  tortures.  Few  creations  more  thor- 
oughly degrade  the  world  into  an  arena  of  pain  and 
pleasure  than  do  the  poems  of  Dante. 

Its  effects  on  practical  morals  are  shown  in  the  marked 
unbelief  and  sensuousness  which  have  accompanied  its 
development.  In  Italy  especially,  irreligion,  superstition 
and  vice  have  flourished  side  by  side  with  asceticism. 
The  two  have  stood  in  mutual  reaction.  The  same  re- 
lation is  somewhat  less  observable  in  Spain.  Such  a 
character  as  Philip  II.  was  the  product  of  this  severe, 
cruel  temper,  whose  personal  piety  was  one  of  rigorous 
rites,  and  whose  charity  was  heartless  exaction. 

Asceticism  led  to  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy.  This  be- 
came a  ready  instrument  in  sacerdotal  authority,  and 
a  constant  occasion  of  gross  immorality.  Herein  the 
divine  order  of  society  was  contemptuously  set  aside,  and 
a  most  artificial  and  peccable  relation  put  in  its  place. 
We  have  in  this  canon  a  broad,  practical  and  permanent 
mistake,  in  an  open  field  of  morals,  individual  and  social. 
"  By  enforcing  celibacy,  fasting  and  solitude  they — relig- 
ious teachers — have  done  their  best  towards  making 
men  mad,  and  they  have  always  largely  succeeded  in 
inducing  morbid  mental  conditions  among  their  follow- 
ers.""* This  accusation  may  be  softened  but  cannot  be 
overcome. 

The  confusion  which  the  moral  sense  suffered  from  its 
affiliation  with  religious  ideas  is  seen  in  the  trial  by 
ordeal,  which  prevailed  for  many  centuries  under  the  di- 


"  Inquiries  into  Human  Faculty,"  p.  68 


!68  SOCIOLOGY. 

rect  sanction  and  supervision  of  the  Church.  Mercy,  and 
justice,  and  common  sense  were  alike  sacrificed  by  it. 
A  blind  appeal  to  divine  intervention  was  made  to  take 
the  place  of  a  just  use  of  the  powers  of  inquiry.  These 
things  are  offered,  not  so  much  as  grounds  of  censure,  as 
grounds  of  instruction,  simple  facts  whose  entire  lesson 
we  have  not  yet  exhausted.  It  is  every  way  unreason- 
able to  expect  a  pure,  perfect  development  of  religion 
from  the  very  beginning, — and  peculiarly  unreasonable  in 
those  who  regard  religion  as  an  evolution  more  than  a 
revelation — but  we  must  see  and  admit  this  fact  of  great 
and  constant  error,  if  we  are  in  turn  to  make  the  progress 
we  ought  to  make. 

§  9.  A  secondary  example  in  the  past  of  missing  moral 
truth  is  offered  in  the  rite  of  baptism,  regarded  as  one  of 
purification,  and  deferred  till  late  in  life.  Instead  of  an 
aid  to  virtue  it  was  thus  made  to  take  the  place  of  virtue  ; 
a  result  not  uncommon  in  religious  dogma.  Men,  in  their 
use  of  Christianity,  thus  failed  to  enter  on  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  a  spiritual  life.  Such  discussions  as  those  in- 
volved in  transubstantiation  indicate  a  darkening  down 
of  moral  vision  that  approaches  absolute  blindness.  The 
religious  idea,  instead  of  reflecting  light,  stands  in  the 
way  of  light  that  might  otherwise  reach  the  mind.  All 
ordinary  evidence,  all  familiar  methods  of  thought,  the 
testimony  of  the  senses,  are  set  aside,  and  the  truths  of 
the  spiritual  world  are  subverted  by  subverting  the 
rational  foundations  on  which  they  rest,  and  are  escaped 
by  closing  against  them  the  ordinary  avenues  of  ap- 
proach. Everything  fantastic,  absurd,  superstitious, 
can  now  find  entrance.  The  doors  are  wide  open  to  va- 
grant, dust-laden  winds.  Reason  and  unreason  are  con- 
founded, and  all  distinction  of  method  between  them  is 
lost  Society,  as  the  home  of  thought,  of  pure  and  ex- 


E  THICAL  LA  W—GO  VERNMENT  AND  RELIGION.      1 69 

alted  affection,  cannot  be  built  till  the  foundations  of 
truth  are  relaid  in  sufficient  and  practical  proof.  The 
Stoics  may  well  have  felt  that  they  could  discuss  more 
soberly  and  wisely  many  social  questions  than  could 
Christians.  What  these  gained  in  good-will  they  often 
lost  again  by  some  strange  obscuration  of  the  intellect. 

§  10.  When  we  come  down  to  our  own  time,  it  is  easy 
to  indicate  corresponding  failures,  though  less  in  degree, 
that  are  still  with  us  on  the  side  of  unreason.  While  we 
are  far  more  tolerant  than  our  ancestors,  we  let  go,  with 
great  reluctance,  the  element  of  authority  in  religion.  In 
*the  last  resort,  we  transfer  it,  by  the  doctrine  of  inspira- 
tion, to  the  Scriptures.  A  doctrine  of  inspiration  that 
in  any  degree  bears  down  the  reason,  the  moral  insight, 
is  immoral.  Reason  is  the  citadel,  the  soul  of  moral- 
ity. The  proof  on  which  this  doctrine  is  made  to  rest 
is  unusual  and  insufficient.  It  is  unusual,  because  no 
men  and  no  writings  can  be  allowed,  by  their  own  tes- 
timony simply,  to  establish  their  inspiration.  It  is  insuf- 
ficient, because  the  Scriptures  do  not  testify  to  their  own 
inspiration  in  any  of  the  more  precise  and  severe  forms 
in  which  the  doctrine  is  held.  In  the  last  analysis,  inspi- 
ration, as  a  power  to  constrain  assent,  is  the  personal  con- 
viction which  some  one  man  or  body  of  men  is  using  to 
overbear  the  free  consideration  of  the  truth  by  some 
other  man  or  body  of  men.  If  a  full  appeal  is  made  to 
reason,  we  need  no  dogma  of  inspiration,  and  can  make 
no  use  of  it.  Inspiration  will  stand  with  us  for  the  lively, 
successful  action  of  the  mind  toward  the  truth  ;  will  be 
sought  by  us  for  ourselves,  and  when  recognized  by  us 
in  others  will  quicken,  not  suspend,  our  own  inquiry  and 
insight. 

Our  freedom  in  the  use  of  the  Scriptures,  and  our  un- 
impeded access  to  their  overflowing  fountains  of  spiritual 


SOCIOLOGY. 

truth,  will  be  very  much  modified  by  a  doctrine  of  inspi- 
ration, which  makes  of  it  a  determinate  and  strictly  su- 
pernatural impulse.  For  example,  in  Jacob  we  find 
craft  and  selfishness  closely  interlaced  with  his  religious 
convictions,  so  much  so  as  to  decidedly  vitiate  them. 
The  blessing  of  his  father,  Isaac,  which  stands  for  the 
blessing  of  God,  can  be  won  by  deceit.  At  the  foot  of 
the  ladder  of  vision,  his  promise  to  serve  God  is  of  the 
nature  of  a  trade,  and  is  conditional.  If  God  will  be 
with  me,  and  will  keep  me  in  this  way  that  I  go,  and  will 
give  me  bread  to  eat  and  raiment  to  put  on,  so  that  I 
come  to  my  father's  house  in  peace,  then  shall  the  Lord 
be  my  God.  The  ingenious  and  crooked  ways  by  which 
he  outstrips  Laban  are  fearlessly  included  in  the  divine 
purpose  and  plan.  There  is  in  this  nothing  unexpected, 
nothing  unnatural,  if  we  look  upon  the  narrative  as  sim- 
ply true  to  human  nature,  but  it  leads  to  instant  distor- 
tion, if  we  regard  this  religious  life  as  just  and  complete 
in  theory  or  practice. 

The  pressure  of  inspiration  also  greatly  intensifies  the 
passing  phases  of  religious  feeling,  and  turns  them  within 
each  denomination,  and  in  their  own  narrow  circuit,  into 
a  tyrannous  conventional  sentiment.  They  are  imposed 
more  or  less  blindly  on  those  subject  to  them  ;  a  sense  of 
wickedness  accompanies  any  want  of  them,  or  any  resist- 
ance to  them.  In  the  later  history  of  the  Jewish  Church, 
this  tyranny  was  so  extreme  as  almost  to  preclude  indi- 
vidual thought.  Such  terms  are  most  unfavorable  to 
fresh  and  progressive  moral  inquiries.  Religion  under 
them  is  constantly  appealing  from  reason  to  authority, 
while  morality  must  ever  appeal  from  authority  to 
reason. 

§  ii.  Closely  allied  to  the  dogma  of  inspiration  is  the 
use  which  Christian  Churches  are  still  making  of  the 


ETHICAL  LAW— GOVERNMENT  AND  RELIGION. 


I/I 


supernatural.  We  refer  to  those  phases  of  it  in  which 
the  divine  aid  is  made,  in  some  extra-empirical  way,  to 
take  the  place  of  effort,  or  to  supplement  it.  However 
strongly  we  may  hold  fast  to  the  pervasive  and  most 
helpful  presence  of  God  in  the  world,  it  is  a  belief  that 
must  be  accompanied  by  an  equally  firm  and  earnest 
hold  on  natural  laws,  on  the  permanent  and  wise 
methods,  physical  and  spiritual,  under  which  alone  the 
divine  plan  proceeds,  and  the  divine  aid  is  granted.  To 
look  for  help,  aside  from  the  system  of  discipline,  of  which 
it  is  a  constituent,  is  to  subvert  that  discipline,  and  to 
break  with  the  moral  law.  The  physical  conditions  of 
well-being  and  the  spiritual  conditions  of  growth  are  to 
be  inquired  into  and  accepted,  and  a  supernatural  that 
works  beyond  these  terms  of  experience,  fully  inter- 
preted, is  present  in  subversion  of  them,  and  is  immoral. 
There  is  no  half-and-half  reception  of  reason  and  moral 
law. 

Conversion,  when  it  is  looked  upon  as  a  sovereign,  re- 
constructive act  of  God,  breaks  up  the  very  foundations 
of  morality,  and  contradicts  deeply  and  widely  human  ex- 
perience. Prayer,  except  as  it  is  held  close  under  the 
wing  of  endeavor;  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  ex- 
cept as  that  Spirit  is  one  of  insight  and  love  in  every 
heart,  fall  away  from  the  spiritual,  moral  life,  and  put 
upon  it  more  or  less  of  strain  and  distortion.  Men  be- 
come as  innocently  perverse  in  their  religious  experiences, 
as  partial  in  their  visions  of  truth,  as  was  Jacob,  and  be- 
get their  children  after  them  in  the  same  spirit  of  crafti- 
ness. 

The  candid,  truth*-loving  temper  has  often  been  lost  to 
faith  at  this  very  point  in  its  discussions  with  science. 
Large,  ethical  life  demands  nothing  more  peremptorily 
than  the  truth-loving  mind.  Where  science  and  religion 


1/2 


SOCIOLOGY. 


have  fallen  into  conflict,  the  advantage,  in  this  particular, 
has  often  been  with  science.  The  religious  temper  has 
not  been  truly,  deeply  ethical.  It  has  not  broadly  sought 
the  truth,  nor  quietly  submitted  itself  to  it.  It  has 
prejudged  questions,  in  themselves  new,  and  of  great 
difficulty.  There  are  reasons  for  this  hesitancy,  yet  it 
enables  one  like  Galton  to  say :  "  The  religious  instructor 
in  every  creed  is  one  who  makes  it  his  profession  to 
saturate  his  pupils  with  prejudices."  "  Free  inquiry  is 
peremptorily  discouraged."  *  Much  as  we  may  justly 
say  to  correct  and  modify  this  statement,  there  still 
remains  in  it  a  very  uncomfortable  truth. 

Says  a  very  bright  writer,  Dr.  Martineau,  of  Male- 
branche,  "  His  ecclesiastical  training  had  done  nothing  to 
spoil  his  pure  and  open  spirit  of  truth."  f  This  still  needs 
to  be  said  of  those  who  take  up  philosophical  questions 
from  the  religious  side.  Theological  training  tends  to 
narrow  and  deepen  the  channels  of  thought. 

The  religious  spirit  easily  misses  that  earnest,  quiet, 
reposeful  inquiry  which  is  so  essential  to  just  conclu- 
sions and  sound  morality.  Faith  obscures  the  force  of 
natural  law.  Often,  as  in  revivals,  it  leads  men  to  do  in 
an  unsober  and  superficial  way  a  most  sober  and  pro- 
found work.  It  reasons  hastily  and  narrowly.  It  in- 
quires, as  in  the  story  of  Jonah,  not  what  God  is  wont  to 
do,  but  what,  as  omnipotent,  he  can  do.  It  is  not  con- 
tent to  walk  wisely  with  God  in  the  world,  as  he  makes 
it  and  rules  it.  It  is  constantly  expecting  some  sudden 
change  to  be  put  upon  things,  some  sudden  lift  above 
the  laws  of  morality  into  a  purely  supernatural  realm. 

The  religious  spirit  is,  in  each  sectarian  phase  which  it 

*  "  Inquiries  into  Human  Faculty,"  p.  210. 
t  "  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  155. 


ETHICAL  LAW— GOVERNMENT  AND  RELIGION. 


173 


assumes,  strongly  bound  by  customs  and  preconceived 
convictions.  It  is  very  slow  to  rise  above  its  own  creed 
in  clear,  careful,  bold  criticisms.  We  can  give  the  causes 
of  this  fact,  but  they  are  causes  only,  and  not  sufficient 
reasons  in  the  moral  world.  It  is  because  the  religious 
world  is  only  partially  moral  that  these  things  happen. 
Reforms  of  the  most  imperative  character  meet  with 
hesitating  and  wavering  support  from  churches,  and 
sometimes  encounter  bitter  opposition.  The  religious 
mind  is  not  free  from  the  average  obscurity  on  these 
questions ;  it  meets  them  with  no  supreme  moral  temper. 
Most  of  the  social  questions  of  the  last  hundred  years 
have  brought  nearly  as  much  discredit  as  credit  to  re- 
ligion, so  little  have  Christian  men  fathomed  the  princi- 
ples involved  in  them.  And  this  has  occurred  over  and 
over  again,  and  is  still  occurring. 

There  has  been  a  positive  disposition  to  separate  be- 
tween religion  and  morality,  and  to  antagonize  the  two. 
To  be  sure,  the  morality  under  discussion  has  been  a 
narrow,  formal  one,  and  not  the  large  law  of  life  that  we 
designate  by  the  word  ;  yet  such  a  narrow  definition 
ought  never  to  have  been  given,  and  such  an  opposition 
should  have  been  profoundly  impossible.  This  conflict 
has  been  thought  to  appear  even  in  the  New  Testament, 
and  has  reappeared  in  the  entire  history  of  the  Church. 
Religion  should  have  been  able  to  recognize  and  claim  its 
own,  at  once,  everywhere.  It  should  be  impossible, — that 
is,  our  intelligence  and  good-will  should  make  it  impossi- 
ble,— for  religion  and  morality  to  pitch  separate  camps, 
and  marshal  disciples  in  hostile  array.  When  our  great 
rebellion  broke  out,  though  we  can  never  hope  the  drift 
of  moral  forces  to  be  plainer  than  it  then  was,  we  found 
the  devout  on  either  side.  The  saint,  Stonewall  Jackson, 
led  the  forces  that  stood  for  human  slavery. 


174 


SOCIOLOGY. 


It  thus  happens  that  we  are  constantly  meeting  with 
earnest  religious  minds,  whose  zeal  is  directed  to  ques- 
tions quite  secondary,  if  not  positively  trivial.  Men  de- 
vote themselves  with  life-long  effort,  and  with  a  discus- 
sion that  easily  becomes  bitter,  to  the  form  of  baptism, 
or  to  the  day  of  the  week  which  should  be  observed  as 
the  Sabbath.  They  lose  the  sense  of  proportion  in 
the  moral  world.  They  are  busy  in  tithing  mint,  anise 
and  cumin,  while  great  moral  questions  are  passed  by 
almost  unheeded. 

It  may  easily  happen,  as  it  does  happen  under  these 
circumstances,  that  working  men,  hard  pressed  with  the 
toils  and  dangers  of  life,  take  but  little  interest  in  relig- 
ion, many  of  whose  tenets  are  so  obscure,  and  whose 
persuasives  are  often  so  supersensual.  The  truths  of- 
fered are  too  remote  from  their  daily  life,  and  bring  too 
little  relief  to  it.  They  are  not  ready  to  separate  be- 
tween the  gifts  of  another  life  and  of  this  life,  and  take 
the  former  in  exclusion  of  the  latter.  This  dislike,  which 
has  a  touch  of  truth  in  it,  is  greatly  increased,  when  they 
see  certain  classes  of  Christians  occupied  in  luxurious 
expenditures,  in  oversight  of  the  claims  of  good-will,  and 
appropriating  the  blessings  of  this  life  as  unhesitatingly  as 
those  of  another;  splendid  religious  edifices  at  a  stone's 
throw  from  unrelieved  want  and  unassuaged  sorrow. 
Contradictory  facts  of  this  order ;  a  law  of  life  that  fails  to 
take  the  hardship  and  bitterness  out  of  the  life  which 
men  are  actually  leading ;  the  sumptuous  possession 
of  the  world,  and  a  consolation  offered  to  the  poor  which 
turns  on  a  denial  of  the  value  of  the  world — these  are 
problems  too  difficult  for  the  solution  of  narrow,  prac- 
tical minds,  and  working  men  fall  off  from  them  in  very 
weariness.  They  have,  in  truth,  had  no  fair  chance  at 


ETHICAL  LAW— GOVERNMENT  AND  RELIGION. 


175 


these  enigmas  of  life,  over  which  wiser  men  stumble, 
even  when  the  immediate  stake  is  much  less. 

Facts  which,  in  the  average  Christian,  admit  of  so  dis- 
agreeable an  interpretation,  gain  still  more  painful  ex- 
pression in  persons  who  hold  religion  in  the  left  hand, 
and  grasp  remorselessly  at  the  world  with  the  right  hand. 
Says  George  Eliot,  "  Tim  was  '  a  religious  man  '  him- 
self;  indeed,  he  was  'a  joined  Methodist';  which  did 
not  (be  it  understood)  prevent  him  from  being  at  the 
same  time  an  ingrained  rascal."  It  is  not  hypocrisy 
that  is  here  emphasized,  but  the  utter  loss  in  the  mind 
of  the  true  relation  between  religion  and  morality.  This 
loss,  in  one  degree  or  another,  is  very  common  ;  hypoc- 
risy is  uncommon. 

That  this  confusion,  superficial  and  needless  as  it  is  in 
itself,  runs  far  and  wide  and  deep,  is  sufficiently  seen  in  the 
fact  that  it  misled  so  earnest  and  penetrative  a  mind  as 
that  of  George  Eliot.  "  I  say  it  once  for  all,  that  I  am 
influenced  in  my  conduct  at  the  present  time  by  far 
higher  considerations  and  by  a  nobler  idea  of  duty  than 
I  ever  was  while  I  held  to  evangelical  beliefs."  *  Yet  she 
was  not  able  to  rescue  religion  in  her  own  mind  from 
these  misconceptions,  partial  views  and  unfortunate  asso- 
ciations which  weighed  it  down,  and  this,  too,  when  the 
highest,  most  pervasive  and  tender  temper  of  love  and 
duty  was  still  with  her.  "  Let  this  mind  be  in  you 
which  was  in  Christ  Jesus.  I  believe  the  amen  to  this  will 
be  uttered  more  and  more  fervently  among  all  posterities 
forever  more. "  f 

§  12.  This  division  between  religion  and  moraHty,  this 
collision  between  them,  are  not  the  result  of  secondary 


*  "  Biography,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  115. 
t  Ibid.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  118. 


I76  SOCIOLOGY. 

error,  but  of  a  very  grave  misdirection  of  the  religious 
spirit.  It  has  devoted  its  strength  to  the  inquiries  con- 
cerning certain  speculative  dogmas.  It  has  reached  con- 
clusions in  these  directions  which  it  has  refused  to  submit 
freely  for  correction  to  science,  or  a  wise  sociology,  or  a 
wide-reaching  philosophy.  It  has  not  developed  its  doc- 
trinal systems  side  by  side  with  an  equally  earnest  and  ex- 
tended benevolence,  and  allowed  the  one  to  interpret 
and  instruct  the  other.  Its  dogmas  are  no  more  those  of 
common  life  than  they  are  those  of  wide  thought.  The 
history  of  doctrines, — that  is,  of  speculative  and  uncor- 
rected  thought — discloses  much  astuteness,  much  zeal, 
much  force  of  life ;  but  it  also  discloses  precisely  those 
errors  and  failures  to  which  the  theoretical,  unaccom- 
panied by  a  correspondingly  wide,  practical  outlook,  is 
ever  exposed.  Original  sin,  fore-ordination,  conversion, 
justification  through  the  blood  of  Christ,  salvation  as  the 
gift  of  God,  the  trinity,  are  largely  the  products  of  a  log- 
ical process, — always  tending  to  barrenness  when  unfruc- 
tified  by  a  living  experience — and  once  shaped  as  beliefs, 
may  easily  be  used  to  overlie  and  smother  both  the  intel- 
lectual and  the  spiritual  life.  A  discussion  of  these  doc- 
trines, divorced  from  the  immediate  well-being  of  men, 
begets  acrimony  and  intolerance,  and  subverts  the  spirit 
of  piety  as  one  of  love.  "  Religion  seems  often  to  have 
inflamed  the  worst  passions  of  our  nature, — pride,  ambi- 
tion, cruelty,  rapacity."  The  councils  of  the  Church,  says 
Milman,  are  "  in  general,  a  fierce  collision  of  two  rival 
factions,  neither  of  which  will  yield,  each  of  which  is 
solemnly  pledged  against  conviction."  * 

The  Christian  Church,  unlike  the  state,  has  failed  rela- 
tively on  the  theoretical  side,  and  prospered  on  the  prac- 

*  "  Latin  Christianity,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  227. 


E  THICAL  LA  W—GO  VERNMENT  AND  RELIGION.      j  -jj 

tical  side.  In  spite  of  all  doctrinal  bitterness,  subtilty 
and  remoteness  of  thought,  much  love  for  men,  many 
forms  of  charity  and  much  tender  and  redemptive  sympa- 
thy, have  been  born  of  Christianity,  and  renewed  its 
power  in  each  successive  generation.  This  has  been  the 
mind  of  Christ.  These  acts  of  love  have  been  the  glad 
tidings  of  good-will,  the  gospel  of  all  time.  If  every 
creed,  as  a  creed  simply,  were  swept  from  the  earth, 
there  would  be  some  intellectual  loss,  but  comparatively 
little  moral  loss.  We  sometimes  say  the  sun  has  burned 
away  the  clouds.  The  light  and  love  that  are  in  Chris- 
tianity will  consume  the  mists  and  clouds  that  have 
gathered  thick  and  settled  low  in  its  intellectual  develop- 
ment. 

The  true  growth  of  religion,  its  deepest,  most  central 
line  of  development,  is  practical,  moral,  toward  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Life  directed,  enlarged,  corrected 
by  spiritual  ideas,  this  is  religion.  If-  we  state  it  on  the 
practical  side,  we  have  the  religion -of  St.  James;  if  we 
state  it  on  the  spiritual,  impelling  side,  we  have  that  of 
St.  Paul.  But  in  a  holy  life,  in  a  pure  society,  as  in  all 
products  of  high  art,  the  steadying,  restraining,  condi- 
tioning term  is  form.  We  must,  first  of  all  and  deepest 
of  all,  have  a  life,  but  it  must  be  a  life  hidden  with  God 
in  Christ,  hidden  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  fail- 
ures of  religion  have  been  chiefly  due  to  this  very  sepa- 
ration of  the  inner  and  the  outer,  life  and  the  form  of  life, 
religion  and  morality.  This  is  seen  in  the  slowness  with 
which  a  moral  view — that  is,  a  practical  view,  one  in  har- 
mony with  the  world — of  the  atonement  has  been 
reached,  and  the  reluctance  with  which  it  finds  acceptance. 
The  inner  and  the  outer  have  not  been  made  to  coalesce. 

All  reformatory  periods,  all  epochs  of  renewed  energy 
have  been  those  of  moral  renovation,  not  of  doctrinal 

12 


I78  SOCIOLOGY. 

discussion.  No  disputes,  no  discriminations  have  ever 
saved  the  Church.  Truth,  regenerative  of  life,  has  been, 
and  ever  must  be,  its  salvation.  A  beneficent  life,  wisely 
guided  by  daily  experience,  and  nourished  within  by  the 
broadest,  most  flexible,  most  expansive  ideas,  this  is 
Christianity,  the  mind  of  Christ  incarnate  in  man.  Thor- 
old  Rogers,  commenting  on  the  work  of  the  primitive 
Methodists  and  the  Lollard  Bible-men,  says,  "  I  believe 
it  is  true,  that  all  successful  religious  movements  have 
aimed  at  heightening  the  morality  and  improving  the 
material  condition  of  those  whom  they  have  striven  to 
influence."  *  "A  religion  divorced  from  morality  is  the 
worst  curse  that  human  societies  can  be  called  on  to 

bear."f 

Religion  must  be  a  free,  plastic,  progressive,  versatile 
life,  ever  embodying  itself  in  new  forms  as  the  ages  un- 
fold. The  moment  it  stiffens  into  organization,  and 
settles  into  final  statements,  the  ages  begin  to  struggle 
with  it,  to  shake  it  off,  and  to  leave  it  behind. 

§  13.  This  criticism  of  religious  development  may  very 
easily  seem  harsh  and  narrow.  Taken  wholly  by  itself, 
it  is  so.  Very  numerous  and  very  important  qualifications 
may  well  be  made.  Many  will  be  found  ready  to  make 
them.  The  danger  is  that  these  abatements  will  extend, 
in  the  minds  of  some,  at  least,  farther  than  they  of  right 
ought  to  extend.  We  have  pointed  out  a  real  error  and 
failure  in  religious  life.  The  occasions  of  it  are  another 
thing;  but  whatever  they  are,  they  do  not  alter  the  fact 
of  failure  and  error.  The  comprehensive  expression  for 
all  these  causes  is  the  narrowness  of  the  human  mind, 
and  the  slowness  of  its  upward  movement.  While  we 


*  "Work  and  Wages,"  p.  516. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  382. 


E TH1CAL  LA  W—GO  VERNMENT  AND  RELIGION. 

readily  recognize  this  inherent  necessity  of  the  case,  due 
to  feeble  powers,  we  must  not  cease  to  see  that  it,  like 
all  limitations  and  evils  and  sins,  is  the  very  thing  to  be 
overcome,  and  we  must  set  ourselves  to  the  task. 

In  connection  with  the  tardiness  of  the  human  mind  in 
achieving  spiritual  progress  there  comes  its  inability  to 
lay  hold  of  truths,  except  singly  and  in  a  certain  order  of 
sequence.  Truths  that  mutually  qualify  and  support 
each  other  are  attained  by  a  rhythmical  movement, 
which  gives  strong  emphasis  first  to  one,  then  to  its  op- 
posite, and  is  able  but  slowly  to  present  them  both,  in  their 
reciprocal  and  corrective  force.  A  good  illustration  of 
this  oscillation  of  growth  is  found  in  the  two  ideas  of  law 
and  love.  Law  must  be  deeply  implanted  in  the  human 
mind  before  it  is  prepared  to  understand  the  direction  or 
limitations  of  love.  Love  is  little  more  than  a  flimsy  pas- 
sion, a  self-betraying  impulse,  till  the  whole  constructive 
outline  of  spiritual  order  is  known  and  profoundly  felt. 
Love,  without  insight,  precipitates  failure,  and  plucks  it 
down  in  the  most  discouraging  form. 

Under  this  relation,  law,  judgment,  justice,  were  the 
ideas  first  implanted  in  the  religious  consciousness,  and 
thus  the  thoughts  of  men  rose  later  and  more  safely  to 
the  altitude  of  the  divine  love.  But  men  are  slow  to  cor- 
rect  a  previous  notion  by  a  subsequent  one,  and  find 
much  difficulty  in  their  mutual  enlargement  and  limita- 
tion. The  notion  of  law  with  which  the  Christian  Church 
was  chiefly  occupied  was  that  of  civil  law,  of  which  they 
had  before  them  an  admirable  example  in  the  Roman 
polity.  Civil  law  suffered  but  little  change  in  its  princi- 
ples in  giving  rise  to  canon  law,  and  human  law  be- 
came the  type  of  divine  law,  and  of  man's  relation  under 
it  to  God,  the  Supreme  Ruler.  The  love  of  God,  even 
redemptive  love,  was  thus  bound  down  to  the  conditions 


!8o  SOCIOLOGY. 

of  human  government ;  was  not  at  liberty  to  enter  into 
the  largeness  of  the  divine  knowledge,  the  completeness 
of  the  divine  resources,  the  masterfulness  of  the  divine 
government.  Only  slowly  could  men  recognize  the  crea- 
tive energy  of  the  divine  love,  enabling  it  to  cast  off  the 
dead  punishments  of  a  comparatively  impotent  human 
polity.  We  still  have  difficulty  either  in  rising  into 
the  divine  love  or,  rising  there,  in  accepting  the  compre- 
hensive limitations  of  wisdom  which  outline  and  restrain 
this  love.  The  succession  and  force  of  these  ideas  are 
disclosed  in  the  very  revelation  of  God.  God  is  first  and 
chiefly  the  creator  and  ruler.  He  is  later  declared  in  the 
tenderness  of  a  father  and  in  the  love  of  a  savior.  Last 
of  all,  he  becomes  a  pervasive,  quickening,  living  pres- 
ence in  each  mind  and  in  all  minds.  The  latest  formula 
is,  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in  God. 

The  disposition  of  the  religious  mind  to  linger  in  the 
narrow  and  personal  and  civil  conception  of  the  divine 
character  and  government,  and  its  reluctance  to  pass  over 
to  the  broad,  spiritual,  universal  conception  of  our  rela- 
tions to  him,  have  been  one  of  the  causes  operative  in  the 
unusually  broad  and  well-reasoned  scepticism  of  our 
time.  Science  has  laid  new  stress,  and  wise  stress,  on  its 
portion  of  the  divine  plan  ;  to  wit,  physical  law.  The 
Church  has  not  been  able  to  bring  forward,  with  equal 
clearness,  the  corresponding  conception  of  moral  law, 
spiritual  law.  It  has  had  only  more  or  less  untenable 
and  humiliating  notions  of  the  divine  being  and  govern- 
ment to  offer.  It  has  found  them  in  a  misrendered  Reve- 
lation, and  not  in  the  Universe  of  God.  The  only  concep- 
tion which  can  really  be  united  with  commanding  au- 
thority to  that  of  the  physical  universe  which  science 
has  unfolded,  is  that  of  a  moral,  spiritual  universe  equally 
broad,  equally  certain  with  the  physical  universe,  and  lift- 


E  THICAL  LA  W—  GO  VERNMENT  AND  RELIGION.      i  g  r 

ing  all  into  the  light  of  ideas,  and  animating  all  with  the 
life  of  God.  'Religious  thought  in  part  failed  to  contrib- 
ute its  share  of  the  growing  interpretation,  and  so  faith 
has  suffered  an  eclipse.  The  mighty  plan  is  outlined, 
but  no  sufficient  divine  light  falls  upon  it. 

In  two  fundamental  particulars,  the  weakness  of  moral 
ideas  in  the  Church  has  been  disastrous.  We  have  failed 
in  consequence  of  it  to  understand  the  presence  of  God 
in  the  world,  and  so  the  proof  of  his  being ;  we  have 
missed  the  true  form  of  the  love  of  God,  and  so  again 
have  searched  more  or  less  in  vain  in  the  world  about  us 
for  this  his  essential  attribute.  Science  shows  the  world 
to  be  complete  within  itself.  It  gives  no  room  for  any 
superior,  outside  presence,  any  formation  which  is  not 
the  inner  power  of  construction.  Thus  the  proof  of  the 
being  of  God  must  be  found,  if  found  at  all,  in  the  inner 
rationality,  morality,  spirituality,  of  the  world  itself,  in 
its  double  terms,  physical  and  mental.  If  there  is  a  soul 
of  reason  running  all  through  it ;  if  there  is  a  spiritual  law 
which  pervades  all  laws  and  is  supreme  in  them  and 
above  them  ;  if  man  finds  himself  truly  at  home  in  the 
world,  as  a  realm  animated  with  inspirations  kindred  to 
his  own,  then  he  discovers  the  presence  of  God,  and  for 
him  God  is,  with  much  the  same  certainty  with  which  he 
himself  is.  But  any  loss  of  the  divine  law  of  life  in  the 
world  about  us  darkens  down  everything.  The  world 
may  be  beautiful,  it  may  be  animate  everywhere,  but  the 
night  is  approaching,  and  we  see  it  no  longer.  The  still 
spirit  of  rational  law  must  be  with  us  each  moment,  or 
we  lose  life  and  lose  God.  We  know  not  where  he  is, 
or  what  he  is  about. 

For  a  like  reason  we  have  missed  his  love.  Why  these 
outcries  of  pain,  why  this  universal  suffering !  The  pa- 
tient, creative  temper  of  love  can  alone  explain  them. 


!g2  SOCIOLOGY, 

First  power,  then  peace  ;  first  vision,  then  the  delight  of 
vision  ;  first  life,  then  life  purified  and  filled*  full  of  pleas- 
ure ;  this  is  the  order  of  ideas.  This  is  the  way  in  which 
God's  eternal,  creative  love  is  now  expending  itself,  as 
a  tender,  brooding  spirit  of  power.  We  must  understand 
it  in  this  way  or  miss  it  altogether.  No  corrections  and 
caressing  fondness  can  expound  it,  or  fill  its  dimensions. 
The  spiritual  universe,  and  what  God  is  doing  and  feeling 
are  all  one,  and  this  revelation  it  was  which  religion,  as 
the  high-priest  of  nature,  should,  standing  side  by  side 
with  science,  have  been  able  to  offer  as  an  experience 
equally  certain  and  far  more  profound  than  that  simply 
of  physical  law.  When  the  ills  of  discipline  sink  quite 
into  the  background,  and  its  grand  results  rise  before  us 
under  the  still  spirit  of  law  and  the  creative  spirit  of  love 
as  a  universe,  unbelief  passes  away ;  we  are  in  morning 
light,  and  need  none  to  tell  us  what  we  see  and  feel.  We 
have  found  God. 

The  Church  has  been  fortunate  in  the  impediments  it 
has  met,  and  the  attacks  it  has  suffered.  If  it  had  had 
more  authority,  it  would  have  bound  its  own  hands  more 
closely  with  systems,  rules,  regulations  ;  it  would  have 
built  heavy,  immovable,  unchangeable  structures  on  the 
soil  under  its  feet.  If  it  had  suffered  less  attack,  it  would 
have  seen  less  quickly  its  own  inadequacy.  There  is  only 
one  word  that  gathers  all  and  explains  all — growth.  We 
should  have  no  hope  of  immortality  and  the  years  of  God 
on  any  other  terms.  It  is  not,  perhaps,  strange,  the  se- 
cret affiliations  of  things  being  considered,  that  the  earn- 
est study  of  physical  law  has  often  given  the  basis  of  a 
morality  so  cogent  and  clear  as  to  be  fitted  even  to  re- 
buke religious  thought.  The  world,  looked  at  as  it  is, 
even  on  its  physical  side,  is  more  corrective  of  error,  more 
suggestive  of  wise  action,  than  conceptions  which,  by  a 


ETHICAL  LAW— GOVERNMENT  AND  RELIGION. 


183 


simply  logical  process,  have  been  allowed  to  run  away 
with  the  mind.  All  revelation,  all  light,  should  fall  on 
the  universe  about  us.  Reflected  from  it,  like  sunlight 
from  green  fields,  it  is  filled  with  .color  and  life  and  in- 
spiration. Morality  gives  the  outer  form  of  action,  which 
we  are  to  fill  and  vitalize  with  the  spirit  of  truth,  the 
spirit  of  God.  The  struggle  in  the  reconciliation  of  form 
and  substance  is  a  most  common  and  difficult  one. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

§  i.  WE  should  now  be  somewhat  better  prepared  to 
consider  some  of  the  problems  that  are  pressing  upon  the 
advanced  forms  of  society  for  an  immediate  solution. 
No  one  of  them  is  of  more  intrinsic  importance  or  of 
wider  relations  than  that  known  as  the  rights  of  women. 
It  involves  an  effort  to  extend  the  opportunities  and  ac- 
tivities of  women  in  two  directions,  in  the  line  of  diversi- 
fied industries  and  of  social  action.  Most  concede  the 
fitness  of  some  extension  in  one  or  both  of  these  direc- 
tions ;  comparatively  few  are  willing  that  all  restraints  of 
law,  and  every  restraint  of  custom  not  based  on  morality, 
and  common  in  principle  to  both  sexes,  shall  be  removed. 
No  question  can  be  more  vital  than  this,  as  it  pertains 
to  the  right  of  each  one  to  the  full  use  of  all  the  powers 
which  belong  to  him,  so  long  as  their  use  does  not  directly 
or  manifestly  interfere  with  the  welfare  of  society.  The 
discussion  of  restraints,  aside  from  the  powers  restrained, 
is  idle.  If  women  have  no  larger  powers  than  those 
which  now  find  exercise  in  the  industrial  and  social 
sphere  assigned  them,  the  removal  of  restraints,  so-called, 
is  a  matter  of  indifference,  and  the  debate  concerning  it 
an  empty  conflict  of  words.  Any  change  would,  under 
this  supposition,  be  purely  nominal.  The  question  in- 
volves, then,  the  right  of  society  to  restrain  the  free  ex- 
ercise of  the  powers  of  the  individual,  without  a  reason 
plainly  and  deeply  grounded  in  the  common  life. 

184 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 


185 


It  will  hardly  be  denied  that  women  manifestly  have 
the  powers  that  would  enable  them  to  enter  on  a  wider 
activity  than  now  falls  to  them,  and  that  that  activity  in 
turn  would  rapidly  widen  the  powers  which,  by  their 
very  presence,  are  leading  women  to  seek  a  field  for  their 
exercise.  The  evils  that  are  anticipated  from  the  grant 
concede,  for  the  most  part,  the  existence  of  the  powers 
which  are  to  give  rise  to  them.  It  is  also  evident  that 
the  sentiments  and  laws  which  now  restrain  women  are 
not  plainly  and  deeply  grounded  in  our  common  life,  but 
have  sprung  up  in  connection  with  very  variable,  com- 
plex and  unjustifiable  feelings,  and  that  they  still,  more 
or  less,  rest  on  these  same  blind,  customary  sentiments 
for  support. 

Women,  a  portion  of  them,  are  pushing  for  the  condi- 
tions of  a  larger  life,  and  a  more  complete  control  over 
the  life  already  theirs.  More  knowledge,  more  use  of 
knowledge,  more  power  over  the  common  resources — 
common  to  men  and  to  women — of  social  and  civil  well- 
being,  these  are  the  high  desire  and  the  truly  wise  de- 
mand. Certainly  there  can  be  no  more  intrinsically  fit 
claim,  and  it  must  be  turned  back,  if  turned  back  at  all, 
not  merely  by  a  proof  of  some  mistake  in  prosecuting  it, 
not  by  a  fresh  array  of  the  sentiments  that  belong  to  cus- 
toms ready  to  become  effete,  but  by  a  plain  showing  that 
the  effort  is  immediately  dangerous  to  society.  The 
claim  is  a  large  one,  and  must  be  met  in  a  large  way. 
What  this  or  that  person  feels  does  not  touch  the  bottom 
of  this  question. 

There  is  no  more  fatal  concession  than  that  which 
allows  one  portion  of  a  community  to  settle  the  appro- 
priate aims,  ideals,  efforts  of  another  portion.  It  is  the 
right  of  each  class,  conscious  of  its  own  resources,  to  de- 
fine life  for  itself,  under  the  common  limitations  of  the 


SOCIOLOGY. 

public  welfare.  The  push  of  its  own  powers,  the  knowl- 
edge of  its  own  desires,  enable  it  to  do  this  with  a  cor- 
rectness and  certainty  underived.  This  discussion  has 
been  burdened  from  the  beginning  with  the  unwarrant- 
able assumption  that  one  portion  of  society  may  define 
narrowly  the  appropriate  form  of  excellence  that  belongs 
to  another.  Sex  as  sex  does  not  modify  the  fundamental 
principles  governing  the  rights  of  men.  It  is  a  fact  irrele- 
vant to  them.  It  only  gives  one  of  the  special — enlarging 
and  limiting — conditions  which  come  under  them. 

This  question  is 'first,  one  of  the  correctness  of  ideals; 
and,  secondly,  of  the  proper  limits  of  social  and  civil 
restraints.  The  true  ideal — not  the  ideal  which  belongs 
to  past  and  present  preoccupations  of  thought ;  not  the 
ideal  imposed  upon  women  by  the  sexual  sentiments  of 
men  in  their  existing  form — will  profoundly  affect  this 
question,  because  it  will  affect  the  output  of  desire.  The 
ideal  of  womanly  character,  on  which  the  rejection  of  this 
claim  of  complete  liberty  under  common  moral  restraints 
proceeds,  is,  we  believe,  partial  and  false.  The  move- 
ment of  enlargement  is  certainly  in  the  right  direction,  as 
tested  by  general  consent,  and  by  our  experience  under 
it  ;  nor  is  it  easy  to  see  why  it  should  not  be  carried  to 
its  natural  limits.  Any  other  limit  we  may  set  up  is  at 
once  pressed  upon  by  all  the  forces  that  have  overthrown 
previous  ones. 

The  struggle  for  what  may  justly  be  termed  the  eman- 
cipation of  women  is  one  of  great  interest,  because 
custom  in  all  its  forms,  social,  civil  and  religious,  is  in- 
volved in  it.  The  custom  we  have  to  encounter  touches 
the  good  order  and  safety  of  the  community  most  pro- 
foundly, and  yet  it  is  a  custom  that  has  never  made 
answer  to  clear  and  well-reasoned  convictions.  Custom 
which  has  its  roots  far  back  in  barbarism,  which  has 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

reluctantly  made  slight  concessions  to  the  accumulated 
pressure  of  civilized  life,  which  has  turned  away  even  the 
spirit  of  Christianity  from  its  own  broad  channels  into 
narrow  currents  ;  custom  which  stands  for  the  near  and 
remote  errors  of  the  past  under  the  manifold  perversions 
of  thought,  feeling,  action ;  under  lust,  the  love  of  irre- 
sponsible power,  selfishness,  superficiality  and  idealizing 
passion  bent  to  narrow  uses  under  a  religion,  hierarchical 
in  sentiment,  and  distinguishing  but  feebly  the  pure  and 
spiritual  force  of  the  higher  affections  ;  custom  which 
consolidates  the  mistakes,  systematizes  the  wrongs,  and 
obscures  the  follies  of  every  stage  of  progress  ;  custom, 
the  hoar  and  reverend  sinner  of  many  years,  and  yet  the 
indispensable  servant  of  the  times  now  passing,  confronts 
us,  contemptuous  of  the  new,  scornful  of  promised  gains, 
bowing  worshipfully  to  all  historic  ideals,  and  .hiding  in 
every  corner  of  thought  and  nook  of  feeling  some  present 
interest ;  custom,  invincible  to  argument,  only  to  be  sub- 
dued by  a  patient  pertinacity  greater  than  its  own  ;  cus- 
tom of  a  blind,  complicated  and  obscurely  emotional 
order,  and  strongest  in  women  who  are  suffering  the  most 
from  it,  bars  our  way  and  challenges  not  only  every  point 
of  proof,  but  meets  with  blind  prejudice  and  persistent 
peevishness  every  phase  in  the  application  of  admitted 
principles. 

That  there  is  a  remnant,  in  the  lower  ranks  of  society 
a  large  remnant,  of  animal  life,  shown  in  the  position 
assigned  women,  can  hardly  be  denied.  Marriage,  a  re- 
lation which  should  be  assumed  with  the  largest  liberty, 
is  forced  upon  her.  Life  is  made  to  promise  the  least 
possible  returns  without  it,  and  so  marriage  itself  is  often 
greatly  marred  by  the  silent  coercion  which  precedes  it. 
The  first  terms  in  brute  life  still  tinge  the  relation  of  the 
sexes.  A  coarse  love  of  domination  helps  to  exclude 


SOCIOLOGY. 

women  from  power  in  the  economic  world,  and  to  force 
upon  her  that  constant  dependence  which  subdues  the 
soul  so  effectively,  and  makes  the  will  concessive  to  evil. 
It  is,  in  part,  because  of  this  perversion  of  marriage,  the 
first  organic  term  in  all  pure,  spiritual  life,  that  some 
have  come  to  think  and  speak  contemptuously  of  the 
"  one-man  and  one-woman "  relation,  as  if  it  were  the 
initial  letter  in  egoism  and  selfishness. 

Society  takes  upon  itself  a  superficial  refinement  of  a 
sexual  relation,  whose  chief  inner  features  are  sensuous, 
and  which  fosters  dependence  and  weakness  in  women  as 
things  in  themselves  fascinating  and  readily  affiliating  with 
sexual  beauty.  This  temper  encourages  what  has  been 
termed  "  the  willy-nilly"  disposition  of  women  in  matters 
of  affection.  "  Coyness  and  caprice  have,  in  consequence, 
become  a  heritage  of  the  sex,  together  with  a  cohort  of 
blind  weaknesses  and  petty  deceits,  that  men  have  come 
to  think  venial  and  even  amiable  in  women,  but  which 
they  would  not  tolerate  among  themselves." 

The  religious  sentiment  softens,  but  does  not  remove 
this  social  tendency.  A  blind,  emotional  element  pre- 
dominates in  faith,  and  women,  under  its  influence, 
become  docile  to  guidance,  devotees  in  devotion  and 
indisposed  to  strong,  independent  work.  They  make  up 
the  body  of  the  Church,  and  rest  quietly  in  the  hands  of 
leaders.  Precepts  which  Paul  laid  upon  a  pagan  society 
two  thousand  years  ago  are  still  regarded  by  many  as 
immutable  principles.  A  hierarchical  temper  roots  itself 
vigorously  in  the  decaying  soil  of  by-gone  centuries. 

In  all  this  there  is  a  profound  contempt  of  women, 
concealed,  on  the  one  hand,  under  the  captivating  glitter 
and  flattering  attentions  of  social  life ;  and  on  the  other, 

*  "  Inquiries  into  Human  Faculty,"  p.  57. 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 


189 


by  resting  in  full  phrase  on  the  excellent  duties  of 
woman  and  her  holy  home  functions.  The  gallant 
thinks,  and  often  speaks,  contemptuously  of  woman,  as 
something  pertaining  to  the  sensuous  accidents  and  com- 
plete enjoyments  of  life.  In  the  Church,  women  are  not 
only  greatly  limited  in  labor,  they  are  constantly  embar- 
rassed in  their  own  undertakings  by  what  is  deemed  a 
higher  and  wiser  and  wider  guidance.  A  spirit  of  silent 
concession  is  inculcated  and  quietly  enforced. 

Says  Byron,  "  I  regard  them — women — as  very  pretty 
but  inferior  creatures,  who  are  as  little  in  their  places  at 
our  tables  as  they  would  be  in  our  council  chambers." 
This  Byronic  sentiment  is  the  natural  outcome  of  By- 
ronic  morals,  and  wherever  the  least  taint  of  these 
morals  lingers,  there  will  linger  also  this  feeling,  like  an 
unwholesome  odor. 

Thus  sin  and  holiness  are  made  to  meet  in  a  low 
estimate  of  the  personality  of  women.  On  both  sides 
this  opinion  works  immorality,  and  checks  the  true 
growth  of  the  soul.  The  admirable  spiritual  attainments 
of  women  are  far  less  influential  than  they  otherwise 
would  be  with  men,  because  they  bear  with  them  a  re- 
duction of  estimate  incident  to  the  assumed  inferiority 
of  the  sex  in  capacity  and  range  of  duty.  The  most 
noble  types  of  character  are  partially  hidden  from  us  by 
this  mist  of  ignorance,  abatement  and  detraction. 

There  is  a  much  higher  ideal  in  inner  thought  and  in 
outer  action  to  which  we  have  a  right.  This  question  of 
ideals  is  of  utmost  moment,  as  it  touches  alike  all  the 
profound  elements  in  character,  and  their  fit  form  and 
conditions  of  expression  in  society.  It  involves  in  full 
circuit  the  principles  of  right  living,  the  finest  of  the  fine 
arts.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  true  ideal  of 
womanhood  would  suffer  by  more  knowledge,  wider 


190 


SOCIOLOGY. 


human  interests,  broader  fields  of  usefulness,  more  inde- 
pendent and  robust  action,  physically,  intellectually  and 
morally,  in  shaping  the  conditions  of  life,  and  life  under 
these  conditions.  Knowledge  which  is  of  the  nature  of 
wisdom  cannot  be  widened  without  a  widening  experi- 
ence. Not  only  would  woman  herself  be  helped  by  such 
an  experience,  not  only  would  she  be  more  helpful  to 
others  by  means  of  it,  there  is  nothing  by  which  man's 
conception  of  her  would  be  more  improved  than  by  the 
hearty  and  timorous  respect  which  is  yielded  to  wisdom. 
The  strongest  proofs  will  be  required  to  satisfy  the  phi- 
lanthropic mind  that  large  things  in  thought,  responsible 
things  in  action,  commanding  things  in  council,  broad 
things  in  human  sympathies,  are  denied  in  any  degree, 
advantageously,  to  women ;  or  that  their  acquisition 
should  be  made  in  any  way  difficult  for  her. 

All  apt,  variable,  beautiful  forms  of  expression  will  re- 
main to  women,  not  less  but  more,  under  an  inner  en- 
richment and  fulness  of  the  spirit.  Man  has  done  no  one 
of  the  many  things  which  he  does  with  such  perfection 
fhat  there  is  possible  no  fresh  variety  or  lustre  in  method. 
The  womanly  way  in  manly  work  still  remains  a  revela- 
tion. Glowing  ideals  are  not  reached  by  dropping  ele- 
ments of  power,  but  by  new  combinations  and  novel 
adjustments  of  living  forces.  The  feminine  form  should 
not  exclude  the  essential  force  of  the  masculine  spirit ;  if 
it  does,  it  sinks  into  weakness.  The  masculine  form 
should  not  be  wanting  in  feminine  tenderness  ;  if  it  is,  it 
becomes  gross,  and  the  more  gross  the  deeper  we  pene- 
trate it.  In  this  highest  region  of  action  there  is  room 
enough  for  all,  with  ever  varying  phases  and  delights  of 
life.  Florence  Nightingale  did  repulsive,  masculine  work, 
but  she  did  it  in  so  rare  a  temper  as  to  give  it  the  true 
beauty  of  womanhood.  There  were  no  incompatibilities 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  lgl 

between  the  work  and  the  woman  who  rendered  it,  be- 
cause the  inner  life  had  measured,  and  overpassed  in 
measurement,  the  external  task.  The  soil  was  coarse,  but 
it  was  quickly  covered  with  delicate  living  tissue. 

When  Dr.  Lidden  says — and  many  good  men  have 
taken  up  the  same  sentiment  with  equal  haste — that 
women  become  "pale  caricatures  of  the  men  they  rival," 
he  fails  to  see  and  sufficiently  feel  many  things.  All 
progress  involves  in  each  independent  step  more  or  less 
of  disproportion  and  maladjustment.  The  reformer  is 
and  must  be  intense,  pungent,  beyond  the  ordinary  man, 
and  must  transcend,  at  one  or  more  points,  the  familiar 
lines  of  symmetry.  The  full  excellency  of  earlier  changes 
cannot  be  seen,  except  by  the  prophetic  eye,  till  they  are 
supported  by  subsequent  ones  and  harmonized  in  them. 
A  lower  harmony  has  been  broken,  a  higher  harmony  has 
not  yet  been  reached.  This  movement  to  a  new  centre 
is  of  the  very  substance  of  reform,  that  at  which  reform 
aims.  The  breaking  of  the  lower  harmony  is  the  condi- 
tion of  establishing  the  higher  one. 

Women  who  urge  the  new  method,  who  claim  the 
larger  rights,  are,  by  natural  selection,  bold  and  decisive 
spirits. .  They  are  already  at  war  with  conventional  sen- 
timent and  accepted  proprieties,  and  are  made  more 
pronounced  by  every  form  of  unreasonable  opposition. 
They  suffer  somewhat  the  warp  and  distortion  which 
come  to  all  men  by  prolonged  and  bitter  conflict.  They 
serve  their  generation  at  their  own  cost ;  they  go  to  war 
at  their  own  charges. 

Sensitive,  fastidious  men,  who  have  kept  quite  within 
conventional  lines,  and  have  even  done  something  to 
straighten  and  establish  them,  are  greatly  offended  by  a 
new,  immature  type  of  character,  an  unwomanly  charac- 
ter, as  they  abhorrently  term  it.  The  offence  on  their 


I92 


SOCIOLOGY, 


part  is  unreasonable  ;  yet  it  is  also  unreasonable  to  ex- 
pect those,  trained  in  this  school  of  proprieties,  the  syn- 
onyms of  virtue,  to  dig  beneath  the  old  familiar  founda- 
tions of  social  order,  to  uncover  the  bed-rock,  and  to 
make  the  preparations  for  a  larger  and  more  complete 
structure.  They  do  not  come  near  enough  those  who 
are  laboring  for  fresh  conditions  of  order  to  understand 
their  constructive  ideas.  Disturbed  by  the  dust  and  of- 
fended by  the  rubbish  of  overthrow,  they  keep  at  a  dis- 
tance, and  fail  to  measure  the  feeling  that  occasions  all 
this  confusion,  and  the  grandeur  of  idea  that  underlies 
it.  They  think  through  their  senses  and  prejudices, 
rather  than  through  their  moral  intuitions.  There  are 
often  great  tenderness  of  sentiment,  as  well  as  purity  of 
thought  and  vigor  of  intellect,  in  these  "  pale  caricatures," 
hard  at  work  in  an  unlovely  masculine  method — unlovely 
only  because  seen  in  the  midst  of  those  harsh  circum- 
stances which  it  itself  is  laboring  to  abolish. 

In  much  the  same  way  were  men  enamoured  of  the 
beauty  of  slavery,  its  fine,  large  domesticity,  its  varied 
and  picturesque  presentations,  and  in  much  the  same 
way  have  they  been  compelled'to  wait  patiently  on  free- 
dom year  after  year,  to  justify  itself  even  in  a  bearable 
life.  We  cannot  have  upheavals  and  reconstructions  in 
one  and  the  same  instant. 

There  is  another  aspect  of  this  question  of  ideals.  The 
two  sexes  are  with  us  becoming  painfully  separate  in 
their  tastes,  habits  and  conceptions  of  truth.  Gross  ap- 
petites, like  that  for  tobacco,  narrowing  pursuits  in  the 
intense  temper  incident  to  a  search  for  wealth,  and  un- 
spiritual  habits  of  thought,  occasion  among  men  a  coarse, 
unbearable  quality  of  body  and  mind.  On  the  other 
hand,  restrained  appetites,  enlarged  education  and  the 
studied  refinements  of  a  spiritual  training,  render  women 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  j^ 

more  and  more,  in  body  and  mind,  a  sublimated  order  of 
beings  who  come  in  contact  with  the  ugly  facts  of  life 
shudderingly  and  with  profound  deprecation.  There  is 
a  wound  to  every  higher  sensibility,  again  and  again,  as 
the  pure  and  inexperienced  fall  into  the  base  uses  of  a 
truly  lower  class  of  beings.  Men  and  women  need  to  be 
brought  together  on  better  terms  of  action,  under  a  larger, 
more  instructive  and  less  irretrievable  type  of  experience. 
§  2.  While  ideals  touch  the  very  bottom  of  this  ques- 
tion of  the  rights  of  women  in  its  spiritual  force,  they  do 
not  fully  cover  it  in  its  social  bearings.  It  is  not  the 
office  of  society  to  define  ideals  for  its  citizens.  Its  busi- 
ness is  to  give  the  largest  liberty  in  forming  and  working 
out  ideals.  It  is  quite  time  that  good  men  should  cease 
to  construct  authoritative  ideals  for  half  the  race,  and 
should  learn  to  leave  the  inner  force,  the  divine  force,  of 
the  lives  of  earnest  women  to  develop,  and  to  declare  for 
them  their  own  ideals.  New  types  of  conduct  must  come 
from  the  push  of  fresh  life,  rather  than  from  antiquated 
speculations  concerning  it.  Nothing  can  be  more  unrea- 
sonable than  to  remand  women  to  certain  defined  labors, 
to  suffering  and  prayer  and  patient  waiting  under  these 
labors,  and  to  forbid  them  to  put  forth  their  hands  in  ac- 
complishment of  the  very  things  they  long  for.  There  is 
in  this  a  disparagement  so  profound  that  it  thrills  the  air 
with  irony,  and  makes  the  wisest  precepts  sound  like  bitter 
words  of  tyranny.  When  piety  is  thought  especially  to 
become  women,  piety  and  womanhood  are  alike  dishon- 
ored. When  domestic  virtues  are  made  pre-eminently 
and  exclusively  their  virtues,  they  hang  on  them  like 
chains  and  trammel  them  as  uncomfortable  garments. 
Why  does  wise,  womanly  counsel  come  so  often  in  vain 
from  the  lips  of  the  mother  and  the  wife  and  the  sister? 
Because  of  the  weakness  of  the  personality  which  society 
13 


SOCIOLOGY. 

has  helped  to  put  back  of  these  divine  relations.  The 
oracle  is  not  greater  than  the  priestess  who  pronounces 
it.  Wisdom  cannot  be  weak,  and  weakness  will  destroy 
wisdom  as  certainly  as  wisdom  will  contend  against  weak- 
ness. Moral  power  is  a  great  and  admirable  thing,  but 
it  loses  nothing  by  social  strength.  While  the  pedestal 
is  not  of  the  same  value  as  the  statue,  it  is  very  essential 
to  it. 

The  social  limits  which  narrow  the  productive  labors 
of  women  and  take  from  them  political  power  cannot 
be  justly  maintained  except  in  view  of  some  direct,  pal- 
pable and  important  injury  which  is  to  arise  from  their 
removal.  These  restraints  being  removed,  the  question 
of  ideals  will  settle  itself  under  the  potency  of  real  events. 
The  true,  apt  ideal  will  prevail,  the  false,  superficial  ideal 
give  way.  An  ideal  that  needs  support  from  without 
stands  self-condemned. 

If  women  are  to  have  the  range  of  the  moral  world, 
they  must  also  have  that  of  the  social,  civil,  religious 
worlds,  in  which  the  principles  of  ethics  find  application. 
As  the  field  of  morals  has  no  inner  divisions,  but  is  open 
everywhere  to  one  harmonious  and  continuous  flow  of 
thought,  so  must  be  the  movement  of  that  life,  pure,  de- 
vout, broad  and  vigorous,  which  is  developed  within  it. 
To  check  action  is  to  cripple  thought  and  weaken  the 
moral  power.  The  world  and  the  whole  world  belong  to 
each  man  for  these  very  spiritual  uses.  This  is  pre-em- 
inently true  of  woman,  in  whom  the  sympathetic  and 
moral  development  is  so  pronounced.  She  cannot  afford 
any  loss  of  balance  by  a  loss  of  a  portion  of  the  facts  to 
be  considered ;  nor  can  society  afford  the  loss  of  affec- 
tions so  eminently  quickening  and  refreshing  as  those 
which  characterize  women. 

§  3.  The  social  problem  which  is,  perhaps,  the  most  far- 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  jg^ 

reaching  in  the  principles  involved,  next  to  that  of  which 
we  have  now  spoken,  is  prohibition.  We  wish  to  discuss 
it  on  one  side  only,  its  relation  to  social  construction.  Is 
the  aim  of  prohibition  within  itself  a  legitimate  one? 
We  assume — if  indeed  at  this  late  date  it  can  be  called 
an  assumption — the  immense  evil  of  intemperance  as 
seen  in  crime,  poverty,  insanity,  idiocy,  moral  tone ;  we 
assume — though  this  point  will  gain  something  by  the 
discussion — that  these  consequences  are  inseparable  from 
a  free  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks,  and  we  then  inquire 
whether  on  these  grounds  society  has  the  right  and  the 
duty  to  prohibit  the  sale. 

Prohibitory  laws  belong  to  those  laws  which  are  com- 
pelled, at  the  outset,  to  confront  great  opposition,  and 
ought  not,  therefore,  to  be  enacted  till  a  sound,  working 
majority,  fully  understanding  the  issue  and  pledged  to  it, 
lies  back  of  them.  Suppose,  in  any  community,  as  the 
result  of  wide  discussion  such  a  majority  has  been  secured, 
are  there  still  any  personal  rights  which  should  restrain  it 
from  exercising  its  power?  May  we  propose  prohibition 
as  a  step  in  progress,  or  is  it  forever  forbidden  us  by  the 
inalienable  rights  of  any  and  every  minority  ?  The  mi- 
nority, in  the  case  we  have  supposed,  would  be  made  up 
of  three  classes  :  those  who  are  intemperate,  and  so  tend- 
ing to  the  weakness  of  poverty  and  vice ;  those  who  are 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  and  traffic  of  intoxicating 
drinks  ;  and  those  temperate  drinkers  whose  habits  are 
such  that  the  safety  of  the  community  is  in  no  obvious 
way  endangered  by  them.  The  first  of  these  classes,  in- 
imical to  the  public  welfare  by  actual  intemperance,  can 
offer  no  rational  obstacle  to  prohibitory  law.  If  such  a 
law  were  looked  on  as  a  punishment,  it  would  be  a  very 
mild  one  for  the  offence.  Nor  are  the  claims  of  the 
second  class  much  stronger.  One  may,  indeed,  seek  his 


SOCIOLOGY. 

own  profit  in  all  the  ways  that  the  public  welfare  allows, 
but  the  public  welfare  must  first  be  determined,  and  per- 
sonal profits  are  wholly  secondary  to  it.  The  saloon- 
keeper must  stand  aside  till  this  question  is  settled.  He 
is  burdened  at  once  with  a  heavy  presumption  against 
him,  pursuing  a  business  which  injures  so  many  by  his 
and  their  fault,  and  so  many  others  associated  with  these 
victims  of  appetite  without  fault  on  their  part.  The  sel- 
ler of  intoxicating  drinks,  with  a  very  bad  case  against 
him  on  the  face  of  it,  is  only  brought  by  prohibition 
under  the  perfectly  general  principle  of  the  public 
welfare. 

There  remains,  then,  the  third  class  only  — that  of  tem- 
perate drinkers — to  be  considered.  On  their  rights  the 
discussion  hinges.  This  class  may  be  a  somewhat  numer- 
ous one,  but  must,  under  the  circumstances  supposed,  be  a 
decided  minority.  Have  they  an  indefeasible  right  to  a 
free,  convenient  purchase  of  intoxicants,  and  is  this  right 
a  final  bar  to  prohibition  ? 

To  answer  this  question  in  the  affirmative  is  either  to 
give  up  government  by  the  majority,  or  to  affirm  that 
there  are  certain  original  rights  of  so  fundamental  a  char- 
acter that  no  government  can  fittingly  violate  them,  and 
that  among  these  rights  is  the  free  purchase  of  intoxicat- 
ing drinks.  But  there  are  no  such  rights.  All  personal 
rights  submit  themselves  to  the  public  welfare.  We  pro- 
tect them  in  the  first  instance  for  this  welfare,  and  when 
this  welfare  demands  it,  we  take  them  away.  When  we 
hang  a  murderer  or  imprison  a  thief  we  break  through 
every  personal  right,  and  not  those  of  the  criminal  only, 
but  of  his  friends  also.  When  we  impress  a  soldier,  the 
same  principle  holds  true.  When  we  take  private  prop- 
erty for  public  uses  we  recognize  this  law  afresh.  When 
boards  of  health  say  to  a  citizen,  you  can  do  nothing 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

on  your  own  ground  dangerous  to  the  public  health,  they 
are  giving  the  same  social  idea  new  extension.  This 
principle  goes  with  us  everywhere,  in  the  determination 
of  what  is  decent  and  indecent,  what  is  convenient  and 
inconvenient  in  our  streets,  what  is  and  what  is  not  a 
nuisance,  what  is  safe  and  what  unsafe,  as  in  steam-works, 
railroads,  vessels,  buildings. 

To  affirm  the  personal  rights  of  an  individual  in  a  case 
like  this  is  to  enable  him  to  stand  across  the  path  of  pub- 
lic progress,  to  check  the  organic  movement  of  society, 
and  so  ultimately  to  destroy  his  own  well-being  as  well 
as  that  of  others.  None  of  us  will  have  boldness  suffi- 
cient to  make  such  an  assertion.  We  shall  try  to  show  in 
some  dark  way  that  it  is  better  for  society  to  allow  than 
to  take  away  this  right  of  sale  and  purchase.  That  is,  we 
first  argue  the  case  on  social  gains,  and  settle  it  against 
the  temperate  drinker  ;  then  we  claim  for  him  an  inalien- 
able right ;  and,  hard  pressed,  we  once  more  go  back  to 
social  interest  and  wise  social  tolerance.  Society  ought 
not,  on  the  whole,  to  claim  its  own. 

The  growth  of  society  takes  place  under  a  rhythmical 
movement,  between  individuation  and  organization.  In- 
dividuation  is  for  the  sake  of  higher  organization,  and 
organization,  in  turn,  for  the  sake  of  more  complete  indi- 
viduation. If  either  movement  takes  place  in  arrest  of 
the  other,  both  are  lost.  Organization  always  involves 
this  double  movement  between  specialization  and  com- 
bination. 

In  the  case  before  us,  the  prosperity,  the  moral  force, 
the  growing  strength  of  the  community  to  be  transmitted 
by  inheritance,  are  opposed  to  individual  indulgence  ;  the 
immense  social  and  personal  gains  of  society  are  put  in 
jeopardy  by  it.  It  is  not  sufficient  to  answer  that  this 
common  profiting  may  be  won  when  it  can  be  truly  won  ; 


198 


SOCIOLOGY. 


that  is,  when  all  men  freely  accept  it.  Every  community 
possesses  a  certain  residuum  of  base  and  vicious  material, 
imperfectly  subject  to  moral  law.  It  is  the  right  of  the 
community  to  treat  this  relatively  dead  matter  according 
to  its  own  nature  ;  to  cast  it  out  in  the  degree  called  for 
by  its  relation  to  life.  This,  again,  is  a  part  of  the  or- 
ganic movement.  We  can  have  no  living  organism  that 
is  impotent  to  relieve  itself  of  burdens.  Potency  is  of  the 
substance  of  the  idea.  Society  is  under  no  obligation  to 
subject,  it  ought  not  to  subject,  its  own  high  fortunes  to 
those  morally  inorganic  and  repellent.  It  has  the  deepest 
and  the  most  urgent  of  all  rights — the  right  of  all — to 
overrule  unreason  with  reason,  unrighteousness  with 
righteousness.  Government  means  this  or  it  means 
nothing. 

Suppose  the  majority  yield  such  a  point  as  this  to  the 
minority, — the  free  sale  of  intoxicants — personal  rights 
are  much  more  profoundly  set  aside  than  by  enforcing 
the  wish  of  the  majority.  Society,  in  its  essential  feat- 
ures, is  constructed  by  the  minority  against  the  will  of  the 
majority,  is  constructed  in  defence  of  an  appetite  at  the 
expense  of  a  moral  sentiment.  The  majority  are  com- 
pelled to  endure  the  expense,  the  moral  exposure,  the 
physical  and  social  deterioration  of  all  sorts  incident  to 
the  vice,  debauchery  and  animalism  of  the  intemperate, 
simply  that  the  temperate  may  have  easy  access  to  in- 
toxicants. In  order  that  the  minority  may  spend  their 
money  for  their  pleasure,  the  majority  are  compelled  to 
spend  their  means  for  that  which  they  loathe — the  correc- 
tion of  crime,  the  support  of  pauperism,  the  treatment  of 
idiots,  the  sustenance  of  the  insane. 

Liberty,  growing  liberty,  means  the  increase  and  diffu- 
sion of  serviceable  powers.  Personal  liberty  is  designed 
to  arrest  this  very  movement  toward  liberty.  If  we  con- 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

sider  the  extended  and  inevitable  connection  of  intem- 
perance with  crime,  insanity,  idiocy  and  imbecility,  the 
lives  of  women  and  children  stripped  of  all  safety  by  it, 
the  great  moral  perversion  and  industrial  weakness  that 
attend  upon  it ;  if  we  consider  the  slightness  of  the 
pleasures  and  profitings  incident  to  it,  we  shall  see  that 
there  never  has  been  a  more  preposterous  claim  than 
that  set  up  by  personal  liberty  in  behalf  of  this  traffic. 
If  there  is  any  irrefragable  argument  broadly  based  on 
the  general  well-being,  and  also  narrowly  based  on  the 
right  of  the  weak  to  protection ;  any  argument  pro- 
foundly strong  in  the  magnitude  of  the  interests  in- 
volved in  it,  and  also  strong  in  the  trifling  character  of 
the  interests  sacrificed  by  it ;  if  there  is  any  argument 
unimpeachable  in  its  broad,  moral  bearings,  and  also 
in  the  impatient,  captious,  and  reckless  quality  of  the 
reasons  urged  against  it,  that  argument  is  the  one 
offered  in  behalf  of  prohibition. 

It  is  said,  lay  your  restraints,  where  the  evil  com- 
mences, on  intemperance  proper,  and  not  on  relatively 
innocent  indulgences.  There  are  two  sufficient  answers 
to  this  response.  There  is  no  well  defined  line  between 
innocence  and  guilt.  Here,  also,  as  elsewhere,  we  must 
do  what  we  can  do,  not  what  we  might  wish  to  do.  The 
injury  to  society  commences  long  before  the  temperate 
drinker  is  willing  to  admit  that  he  is  at  fault.  The  effort 
to  retain  the  roots  of  evil,  and  yet  to  keep  the  evil  itself 
well  cut  down,  has  been  shown  to  be,  by  a  long  and  dis- 
astrous experience,  in  the  highest  degree  foolish  and  im- 
practicable. This  effort  has  failed  in  every  variety  of 
form  within  the  last  century.  When  we  deal  with  subtile 
and  pervasive  agents, — as  those  which  sometimes  dissemi- 
nate disease — our  policy  must  be  one  of  thorough  exter- 
mination. The  evils  of  intemperance  are  great  enough, 


200 


SOCIOLOGY. 


extensive  enough,  and  unavoidable  enough,  to  call  for 
this  very  method  of  extinction.  Those  who  oppose  this 
movement  have  at  bottom  the  same  interest  in  it  as  those 
who  maintain  it.  The  measure  is  devised  for  the  com- 
mon welfare,  and  that,  too,  through  the  entire  range  of 
the  community.  Its  losses  are  slight  and  personal,  its 
gains  incalculable  and  general. 

It  should  also  be  urged,  in  this  connection,  that  the 
deep-seated  illegal  temper  which  accompanies  this  traffic 
renders  any  half-way  measures  especially  worthless.  This 
traffic  is,  in  all  its  tendencies  and  its  entire  temper,  illegal. 
The  individual  who  follows  it  will,  as  a  rule,  neglect  the 
restraints  of  law,  and  the  community  which  accepts  it  will 
set  aside  any  limitations  of  law  which  a  higher  authority 
may  have  placed  upon  them.  Many  cities  and  many 
public  officers  treat  with  habitual  contempt  all  the  regu- 
lations intended  as  safeguards  of  this  trade.  There  is  no 
more  a  legal  temper  in  the  business  than  there  is  a  moral 
one. 

But  one  great — that  is,  constant — objection  remains  to 
prohibitory  laws,  and  that  is  that  they,  too,  are  no 
remedy.  The  objection  may  be  quickly  disposed  of  for 
our  present  purposes.  Such  objections  always  arise,  al- 
ways must  arise,  in  transition  periods.  Virtue  is  unable 
to  overcome  vice  till  it  does  overcome  it.  There  are  no 
peculiar  difficulties  in  enforcing  prohibitory  law  when 
the  community  is  ready  for  it.  Such  a  law  is  easier  of 
enforcement,  when  men  wish  it  enforced,  than  are  most 
criminal  laws.  The  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks  is  compar- 
atively easy  of  detection,  and  if  the  sales  are  few  and 
secret  the  evils  are  correspondingly  reduced.  The  in- 
stant a  community,  with  a  good  working  majority  organ- 
ized for  this  end,  says,  This  thing  shall  not  be,  the  traffic 
will  begin  to  wither,  and,  under  this  determination,  will 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  2OI 

rapidly  disappear.  If  the  undertaking  were  far  more  dif- 
ficult than  it  actually  is,  the  community  ought  to  enter  on 
it  as  a  discipline  of  its  own  moral  power,  an  affirmation  of 
its  own  rights.  What  we  are  always  most  in  danger  of  is 
an  easy  concession  to  the  wrong  on  the  ground  of  its 
persistency  as  wrong — an  acceptance  of  its  own  reluc- 
tance to  be  corrected. 

We  have  not  yet  fairly  tried  the  experiment  of  prohi- 
bition, and  yet  its  successes  .have  often  been  striking. 
Give  a  territory  large  enough  to  offer  the  conditions  of 
success  ;  let  a  majority  of  the  citizens  in  that  territory 
order  their  political  action  in  direct  reference  to  this  very 
end,  and  in  an  incredibly  short  period  the  traffic  will  be 
so  checked  as  to  stand  on  a  footing  with  other  crimes  in 
the  frequency  of  the  violation  of  law.  No  such  condi- 
tions have  yet  been  gained  in  this  country.  There  have 
been  failures  more  or  less  complete,  but  neither  so  many 
nor  so  great  failures  as  we  might  well  have  expected  from 
the  mixed,  partial  and  misleading  methods  which  the  ad- 
vocates of  prohibition  have  used,  and  which  have  been 
used  toward  them.  A  law  on  the  statute  book  has  been 
the  ulterior  aim,  with  no  sufficient  provision  for  its  en- 
forcement. No  policy  could  promise  less  or  be  more 
sure  of  disaster.  Righteousness  is  always  entitled  to  its 
own  complete  and  righteous  methods. 

There  is  in  itself  no  movement  that  more  aids  itself  by 
its  own  progress  than  prohibition.  Capital  is  rapidly 
transferred  to  other  branches  of  business,  and  so  ceases 
its  pressure  ;  appetite  slackens  its  hold  ;  public  sentiment 
changes  sides  ;  the  increased  prosperity  becomes  mani- 
fest;  and  all  persuasive  reasons  set  in  like  a  great  river, 
to  bear  the  community  on  in  its  righteous  and  prosperous 
intent. 

Much  emphasis  may,  in  this  connection,  be  rightly  laid 


2Q2  SOCIOLOGY. 

on  the  timidity  of  capital,  in  large  quantities.  The 
strength  of  the  trade  for  all  purposes  of  defence  is  now 
the  immense  capital  safely  and  profitably  employed  in  it. 
Let  a  national  prohibitory  law  be  seen  approaching,  let  it 
be  actually  passed  with  the  support  of  the  people,  and 
this  capital  will  rapidly  scatter  in  all  directions,  and  al- 
most wholly  disappear.  The  manufacture  of  spirits  in 
any  considerable  quantity  is  a  palpable  fact  readily  dealt 
with.  The  risks  of  such  manufacture  would  be  very  great. 
The  United  States  Government  has  met  with  no  very 
grave  obstacle  in  enforcing  a  very  heavy  tax. 

As  capital  is  withdrawn,  the  power  of  the  traffic  will 
disappear.  Each  man  will  have  enough  to  do  to  care  for 
himself,  without  contributing  anything  to  the  common 
cause.  Capital  is  interested  in  profits,  and  safe  profits  will 
be  no  longer  possible.  The  battle  with  capital  is  to  be 
fought  out  before,  not  after,  the  passage  of  a  national  law. 
Appetite  will  remain  much  longer,  but  appetite  cannot  to 
any  extent  create  the  means  of  gratification,  and  must 
slowly  yield  to  the  moral  sentiment  and  physical  facts 
which  surround  it. 

Large  cities,  it  is  confidently  said,  cannot  be  reached 
by  prohibition.  If  large  cities,  like  New  York,  Chicago, 
Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  were  now  in  a  safe  condition,  this 
objection  would  have  much  force.  But,  unfortunately 
for  this  objection,  large  cities  are  in  a  very  unsafe  condi- 
tion, are  a  problem  of  fearful  urgency  forced  upon  all  for 
immediate  solution.  The  prohibitionist  is  the  only  one 
who  is  in  any  way  prepared  to  meet  this  difficulty. 
Society  must  look  to  prohibition  as  the  only  direct  and 
safe  method  of  confronting  this  instant  danger. 

According  to  the  The  Nation,  seven  of  the  twenty-four 
aldermen  of  New  York  City  are  liquor-dealers,  and  only 
three  out  of  the  twenty-four  are  reliable  in  reference  to 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  203 

the  public  interests.  No  degree  of  dishonesty  and  corrup- 
tion is  impossible  or  improbable  in  the  majority  of  this 
board.  Even  a  worse  balance  exists  in  Chicago.  The 
seat  of  the  trouble  is  the  social  and  political  power  of  the 
liquor-traffic.  The  direct  and  only  possible  remedy  is  the 
overthrow  of  this  traffic.  Who,  under  these  circum- 
stances, has  the  key  of  the  future  ?  The  prohibitionist. 
Prohibition  is  not  the  point  of  danger  but  of  safety. 

§  4.  The  extent  and  province  of  public  education  as  a 
social  and  regenerative  agent  still  demand  attention,  not- 
withstanding the  attention  they  have  already  received.  It 
is  by  no  means  a  wholly  discouraging  indication,  that  the 
methods  and  results  of  education  are  so  generally  and  so 
severely  criticised.  If  it  implies  something  like  failure 
on  one  side,  it  also  implies  on  the  other  a  high  sense  of 
what  education  ought  to  be,  and  ought  to  do.  There  is  a 
chimerical  element,  both  in  the  criticism  and  in  the  hope 
implied,  yet  one  that  tends  toward  effort.  Prevalent 
methods  of  education  are  by  no  means  as  faulty  as  they 
are  often  represented  as  being ;  nor  are  new  methods  as 
full  of  promise  as  they  are  thought  to  be.  One  fact, 
however,  of  utmost  moment  is  emphasized  by  fault-find- 
ing, and  that  is,  that  education  must  enlarge  and  improve 
education.  Knowledge  alone  corrects  knowledge.  If  our 
instruction  is  not  sufficiently  practical,  if  it  lacks  definite 
moral  force,  it  is  very  much  to  discover  these  facts,  and 
to  begin  to  include  in  order  each  new  factor.  Whatever 
have  been  our  failures  in  education,  we  should  have  found 
them  out  only  by  education.  Neither  knowledge  nor  in- 
struction can  be  self-destructive,  for  they  set  aside  the  old 
and  the  faulty  only  by  disclosing  the  new  and  the  im- 
proved. As  long  as  human  progress  is  conscious  and  vol- 
untary, it  is  vain  to  disparage  education,  since  it  must 


204  SOCIOLOGY. 

remain  the  indispensable  condition  of  growth,  as  much  so 
as  is  light  of  safe  animal  movement. 

If  our  instruction  has  been  too  narrow  ;  if  a  knowledge 
of  arithmetic  is  not  equivalent  to  a  knowledge  of  morals  ; 
if  a  smattering  of  grammar  does  not  imply  a  mastery  of 
life  ;  if  a  theoretical  exposition  of  truth  cannot  take  the 
place  of  practical  obedience,  it  is  much  to  understand 
these  relations,  and  the  one  ever  returning  lesson  is,  the 
enlargement  and  improvement  of  effort. 

That  public  education  which  is  to  subserve  the  pur- 
poses of  public  life  must  be  general  and  extended.  If  it 
is  simply  rudimentary,  it  will  easily  become  abortive. 
Breadth  and  height  must  sustain  each  other  in  instruction 
as  in  architecture.  General  knowledge  must  lead  to  exact 
and  specific  knowledge,  and  special  knowledge  must  gain 
circulation  and  social  force  through  the  medium  of  popu- 
lar intelligence.  The  common  consciousness  must  be  one 
of  light  and  liberty,  one  in  which  ideas,  however  begotten, 
find  easy  movement.  This  ready  communicability  of 
social  truth  and  social  sentiment  is  as  absolute  a  demand 
in  a  free  government  as  is  circulation  in  a  healthy  phys- 
ical body.  All  methods  of  influence  — those  of  the  press, 
of  the  pulpit,  the  platform — are  effective  and  safe  on  this 
condition  only. 

Public  education  must  aim,  therefore,  at  that  general 
intelligence  which  makes  the  community  receptive,  and 
at  that  special  intelligence  which  makes  it  productive. 
How  far  we  are  falling  below  the  insight  necessary  in 
handling  public  interests  is  seen  in  such  questions  as  the 
tariff  and  the  currency.  The  principles  involved  in  these 
urgent  problems  are  not  very  obscure  nor  very  difficult  of 
apprehension,  yet  the  popular  mind  is  far  from  having 
clear  convictions  on  them,  so  far  as  to  lead  to  most  serious 
errors.  So  long  as  there  is  this  general  dulness  of  thought, 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

making  selfish  and  misleading  demagogism  possible,  we 
shall  have  demagogues.  They  are  the  product  of  a  hazy 
intellectual,  and  an  oppressive  moral,  atmosphere.  Social 
convictions  that  are  to  be  carried  out  in  ready  and  safe 
action  must  be  deeply  and  broadly  penetrated  by  the 
truth. 

Freely  granting  that,  under  existing  complexities,  it  is 
a  foolish  piece  of  dogmatism  to  say  that  the  principles 
which  underlie  free  trade  and  a  sound  currency  are  per- 
fectly simple  in  their  application,  yet  it  is  plain  that  the 
chief  difficulty  in  dealing  with  these  problems  is  the  com- 
plexity of  interests  that  push  into  the  foreground,  and 
not  the  complexity  of  truth.  The  light  is  divided  and 
refracted  in  a  hazy  atmosphere  of  ignorance  and  selfish 
impulses.  We  could  reach  conclusions  with  comparative 
ease  and  safety,  if  men  were  willing  to  accept  them.  The 
sun  itself  can  be  befogged  if  there  is  only  an  atmosphere 
to  receive  the  fog ;  and  that  atmosphere  is  found  in  the 
political  world  in  popular  ignorance.  It  is  this  that  en- 
tertains and  retains  the  misrepresentations  of  self-interest. 
What  we  need  constantly  to  remember  is,  that  that  in- 
telligence which  is  to  deal  vigorously  and  thoroughly  with 
difficult  social  questions  must  be  a  general  and  growing 
intelligence. 

Many  urgent  problems  of  national  policy  are  of  this 
broad  and  obscure  character.  Interested  advocates  are 
ready  to  out-face  science,  philosophy  and  moral  conviction 
in  their  discussion.  The  degree  in  which  we  ought  to 
fortify  our  harbors  and  strengthen  our  navy,  for  example, 
depends  very  much  on  the  moral  temper  of  the  people, 
the  risks  they  are  willing  to  take  in  behalf  of  peace  and 
quiet  counsel.  Comparative  defencelessness  is  only  in 
keeping  with  high  moral  character.  Certainly  our  policy 
is  an  obscure  and  doubtful  one,  when  the  Secretary  of  the 


206  ^SOCIOLOGY. 

Navy  can  say  that  we  have  little  or  nothing  to  show  for 
the  seventy-five  millions  spent  during  the  last  seventeen 
years  on  vessels  of  war.  We  are  involved  in  a  confusion 
much  greater  than  that  of  principles,  when  the  manufact- 
urers of  screws  enjoy  so  high  a  protection  that  they  can 
afford  to  pay  English  manufacturers  a  bonus  not  to  dis- 
turb their  market  ;  or  when  workmen  can  be  led  to  be- 
lieve that  they  can  be  in  any  way  gainers  from  an  exces- 
sive issue  of  silver. 

The  intelligence  that  is  to  subserve  the  purposes  of 
prosperity  in  this  people  is  not  the  power  to  read  and 
write,  it  is  an  intelligence  that  opens  and  answers  all 
social  inquiries. 

There  are  two  objections  which  lie  against  public  edu- 
cation in  the  minds  of  its  more  candid  opponents.  The 
first  of  these  is  that  it  is  unjust  to  take  private  means  at 
one  point  and  use  them  for  private  ends  at  another  point, 
to  tax  one  man  to  educate  another  man's  son.  The  error 
in  this  objection  arises  from  a  narrow,  bald  division 
between  public  and  private  interests.  Many  private 
matters  are  also  public  ones,  and  must  be  treated  on  this 
side  as  well  as  on  that.  While  each  man  is  interested  in 
training  his  own  children,  the  public  is  also  interested  in 
it.  If  we  mean  by  interest  either  feeling  or  gain  and 
loss,  the  interest  of  the  public  often  exceeds  that  of  the 
parent.  The  rich  man  is  not  taxed  for  the  sake  of  his 
poor  neighbor,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  community  and 
for  his  own  sake.  Private  interests  are  public  interests, 
and  public  interests  are  private  ones.  How  at  any  one 
time  these  interests  shall  be  dealt  with  is  a  question  of 
changeable  relations,  to  be  decided  by  the  broad  bearing 
of  the  facts,  and  not  by  the  narrow  form  under  which 
they  may  offer  themselves.  We  tax  each  citizen  that  we 
may  have  good  roads.  We  do  not  inquire  whether  his  use 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 


207 


of  those  roads  is  in  proportion  to  his  tax.  The  goodness 
of  roads  remains  for  all,  a  public  concernment,  no  matter 
who  travels  upon  them.  In  a  more  extreme  application 
of  this  same  principle,  we  conscript  rich  and  poor — more 
often  the  poor — for  the  defence  of  the  state,  though 
this  defence  may  not  only  not  issue  in  any  personal 
advantage,  but  may  cost  the  conscript  his  life.  The  indi- 
viduation  involved  in  this  objection  to  education  is  so 
extreme  as  to  be  inadmissible.  It  would  be  a  strange 
anomaly  if  my  neighbor  were  rightly  compelled  to  yield 
his  sons  for  the  defence  of  my  property,  and  I  were 
under  no  obligation  to  submit  to  any  burden  on  that  prop- 
erty in  behalf  of  the  training  of  those  sons  ;  though  this, 
in  view  of  permanent  well-being,  may  be  an  equally,  or 
more,  important  public  interest.  We  are  taxed  in  educa- 
tion, not  for  the  immediate  aid  of  our  fellow-citizens,  but 
for  the  indispensable  conditions  of  the  general  welfare. 
The  fact  that  there  is  a  personal  gain  must  not  be  allowed 
to  hide  this  broader  relation. 

But  a  second  objection,  deeper  than  the  first,  springs  up 
in  the  form  of  a  denial  of  public  improvement  by  public 
instruction.  The  objection  is,  not  that  knowledge  is  not 
profoundly  essential  to  progress,  but  that  the  imparting 
of  it  rests,  in  each  instance,  as  a  duty  on  parents  ;  that  to 
relieve  the  poor  of  this  obligation  to  themselves  and  to 
their  children  is  to  enervate  them,  and  to  teach  them  to 
shirk  the  responsibilities  of  life.  Here  the  broad  princi- 
ple is  urged  of  personal  independence  and  personal  power. 
There  is  no  principle,  admittedly,  more  important  than 
this.  In  this  case  we  think  it  misapplied.  The  need  of 
education  is  not  so  obvious  and  so  urgent  that  instruction 
can,  with  the  ignorant  and  the  poor,  be  left  to  its  own  en- 
forcement ;  nor  are  the  mischiefs  arising  from  the  want 
of  instruction  so  narrow  and  so  personal  that  the  de- 


208  SOCIOLOGY. 

pressed  classes,  planted  in  the  midst  of  society,  can  be 
allowed  to  make  what  shift  they  can  under  them.  The 
duty  arises  between  parents  and  children,  but  the  remiss- 
ness  rests  with  the  one  class,  and  the  injury  with  the 
other.  It  is  a  duty  that  comes  as  secondary  to  that  of 
providing  food  and  clothing,  and  this  primary  work  often 
exhausts  the  physical  and  moral  resources  of  the  parent. 
The  poor  rarely  see  or  feel,  in  a  sufficient  degree,  the 
force  of  the  interests  involved  in  education,  and  so  can- 
not be  left  to  self-interest  as  an  adequate  motive.  More- 
over, this  motive  of  self-interest  still  retains,  notwith- 
standing this  aid  in  education,  an  ample  field  for  its  ex- 
ercise in  providing  the  general  conditions  of  prosperity. 

If  we  were  to  compare  two  communities,  one  in  which 
there  is  thorough  public  education,  and  one  in  which 
there  is  no  provision  for  general  instruction,  we  should 
find  in  the  former,  as  in  the  United  States,  an  excep- 
tionally large  spirit  of  self-helpfulness.  Education 
greatly  increases  the  motives  to  ambitious,  self-directed 
effort.  The  very  gist  of  education  is  the  awakening  of 
fresh  incentives,  is  letting  in  the  light  of  knowledge, 
which  is  the  very  medium  of  desire.  A  well-educated 
community  will  always  be  distinguished  by  diffused,  as 
well  as  by  intense,  energy.  Education  gives  range  to 
all  social  stimuli,  and  helps  to  make  easy  the  conditions 
of  attainment.  There  is  certainly,  on  the  whole,  no  form 
of  giving  which  so  completely  regards  the  law  of  indi- 
vidual effort  as  this  of  education.  Education  itself  in- 
volves effort,  stimulates  further  effort,  and  helps  it  on- 
ward. Even  with  the  very  ignorant  and  indolent,  the 
education  of  children  is  more  likely  to  increase  than 
abate  action.  It  leaves  the  full  burden  of  the  most  im- 
mediate wants  of  the  child  still  resting  on  the  parent,  and 
strengthens  the  wish  to  bear  it. 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  2OQ 

We  are  certainly  not  prepared  to  say  there  shall  be  no 
giving,  our  sympathetic  impulses  are  all  a  mistake.  On 
the  contrary,  the  divine  wisdom  is  preeminently  in  them. 
Energy  is  inspired  by  a  wise  gift,  and  the  heart  su- 
premely strengthened  by  it.  Certainly  no  gift  is  wiser 
than  this  gift  of  wisdom,  or  more  stimulating  than  it. 
The  objector  to  the  value  of  education  is  convicted  of 
inconsistency  and  insincerity  by  the  fact  that  he  never 
applies  his  conclusions  to  his  own  children.  These  he 
always  wishes  to  be  well  instructed.  The  general  custom 
among  men  convicts  of  equal  error  the  opinion  that  free 
education  enervates  the  poor.  Higher  education,  even 
for  the  very  rich,  is  almost  universally  eleemosynary. 
The  energy  of  the  community  has  certainly  not  been 
impaired  by  this  fact.  The  poor  can  bear  with  equal  suc- 
cess a  like  heedfulness  of  public  interest. 

In  a  community  of  ample  public  education,  each  citi- 
zen receives  a  fair  compensation  for  what  he  gives.  The 
wealthy  citizen  may  seem  to  give  largely  with  little 
direct  return,  and  the  poor  citizen  to  give  little  with  a 
large  return.  Yet  the  common  prosperity,  built  up  by 
this  education,  makes  very  unequal  repayments  to  the 
rich  and  the  poor,  and  with  exactly  the  opposite  dispro- 
portion. The  rich  can  readily  bear  in  its  pressure  on 
enterprise  this  extra  burden,  and  the  poor,  weak  in  mo- 
tives to  exertion,  require  this  softening  of  conditions, 
sure,  at  best,  to  be  very  hard.  While  natural  law  is 
never  to  be  set  aside,  it  is  to  be  constantly  supplemented 
by  higher  social  and  moral  laws,  themselves  also  ordi- 
nances of  nature.  All  the  affections  and  amenities  of 
life  involve  this  very  thing,  this  very  addition  of  grace 
to  labor,  benevolence  to  justice. 

§  5.  A  social  problem  of  most  immediate  and  pressing 
significance  is  this  very  one,  the  equalization  of  advan- 
14 


210  SOCIOLOGY. 

tages  between  citizens,  more  particularly  between  the 
rich  and  the  poor,  those  who  have  won  the  lead  and 
those  who  have  fallen  behind.  All  social  movement, 
left  to  simply  primary,  natural  tendencies,  gravitates 
toward  tyranny.  It  is  the  very  office  of  the  moral  reason 
to  correct  this  tendency,  or  rather  to  anticipate  it.  When 
strength,  physical  and  intellectual,  is  allowed  to  work  out 
its  own  results,  we  have  the  rule  of  kings  and  aristocra- 
cies. When  industry  prevails,  the  form  of  the  relation  is 
altered,  and  somewhat  softened,  but  the  fact  itself  re- 
mains. The  active  and  crafty  now  rule  as  certainly  as 
the  strong  and  the  unscrupulous  in  the  past.  The  new 
and  better  incentives,  awakened  by  progress,  require 
moral  guidance,  correction  and  aid.  A  community  in 
which  wealth  has  won  all  its  natural  advantages,  and 
completed  its  usurpations,  is  hardly  more  bearable  than, 
one  resting  under  a  military  despotism.  The  difference 
between  the  two  lies  chiefly  in  the  number  oppressed. 

Protection  is  admitted  by  all  to  be  the  first  duty  of 
government.  But  this  protection  is  not  that  of  the  pro- 
ductive classes  against  the  depredative  classes  simply,  is 
not  of  society  against  criminals  merely,  but  is  also  the 
protection  of  the  weak,  universally  and  broadly,  against 
the  strong ;  is  resistance,  wise  and  wisely  directed,  to  the 
general  tendency  of  power  to  usurp  power ;  is  an  effort 
toward  the  constant  redisposition  and  renewal  and  equali- 
zation of  advantages.  Society  thus  ceases  to  be  a  mere 
spectator,  repressing  crime  only,  and  becomes  truly  prov- 
ident, wise,  humane,  constructive.  We  have  no  faith  in 
the  philosophy  which,  arguing  from  the  past,  narrowly 
interpreted,  sets  down  the  state — society — as  a  blind, 
hopeless  bungler,  to  be  crowded  as  much  as  possible  into 
the  background.  When  this  temper  prevails,  an  im- 
mense number  of  the  poor  will  be  carried  to  the  wall  and 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  2II 

crushed  between  it  and  the  state,  which  practically 
stands  for  the  opportunity  of  the  strong.  Men  can  learn 
collectively  as  well  as  individually. 

A  prosperous  community  has  two  terms,  intense  enter- 
prise and  diffused  enterprise.  The  difficulty  has  been  in 
maintaining  them  both.  They  tend  to  destroy  each 
other,  and  in  so  doing  to  destroy  themselves.  The  incen- 
tives of  effort  are  lost  to  the  very  wealthy,  and  at  the 
same  time  and  by  the  same  process  taken  from  the  very 
poor.  Real  life  only  remains  in  the  intermediate  classes. 
If,  however,  we  redistribute  advantages  in  a  communistic 
spirit,  we  cut  the  muscle  of  all  effort,  and  we  shall  cer- 
tainly fail  unless  within  some  narrow  circle  we  find  a  relig- 
ious sentiment  to  take  the  place  of  our  discarded  self- 
interest.  Social  construction  should  aim  at  maintaining 
the  industrial  movement,  and,  for  this  very  end,  at  renew- 
ing and  widening  its  indispensable  conditions.  We  should 
do  as  those  who  order  races.  A  race  once  entered  on  is 
left  to  its  own  completion,  but  the  same  equal  terms  are 
restored  to  each  successive  race.  Advantages  are  not  left 
to  accumulate  themselves  indefinitely,  as  if  there  were 
but  one  race  in  life,  dating  from  the  beginning  and  reach- 
ing on  to  the  end. 

The  present  industrial  temper  of  society  is  in  this 
matter  blind,  selfish,  timid,  careless.  The  money-power 
vigorously  asserts  itself,  and  it  easily  overawes  the  moral 
and  social  forces  which  should  work  with  it,  and  at 
certain  points  supersede  it. 

The  first  example  we  offer  is  that  of  taxation,  its  in- 
equality and  hap-hazard  application.  The  principle  of 
most  immediate  moment  in  taxation  is  that  of  justice. 
This  is  closely  associated  with  the  second  most  important 
principle,  that  taxes  should  be  so  laid  as  to  be  least  bur- 
densome to  production.  If  one  of  these  principles  is 


2I2  SOCIOLOGY. 

violated,  the  other  is  violated  with  it.  The  large  amount 
of  imposts  in  this  country  signally  offends  both  of  these 
principles.  Inequality  in  distribution  and  perplexity  in 
production  belong  to  them  in  a  high  degree.  One  of  the 
worst,  and  yet  for  the  moment  one  of  the  most  popular, 
taxes  is  that  on  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicating 
drinks.  The  community  is  willing  to  wring  out  of  the 
errors,  vices  and  crimes  of  its  members,  the  means  of 
national  subsistence ;  and,  withdrawing  the  hand  of  help 
from  its  guilty  unfortunates,  to  precipitate  them — and  at 
a  price — in  their  wretched  career  of  poverty. 

A  tax  on  products  rests  on  consumption,  and  the  con- 
sumption of  the  poor  as  contrasted  with  that  of  the  rich 
may,  in  the  product  taxed,  have  very  little  relation  to 
their  means.  In  the  case  of  intoxicating  drinks  and  to- 
bacco this  is  especially  true.  A  tax  on  these  articles  falls 
very  heavily  on  the  poor.  Ireland  pays  nearly  double  the 
proportion  of  taxes  which  falls  to  her,  and  chiefly  because 
of  the  large  consumption  of  whiskey  and  tobacco.  A 
humane  sentiment  is  falsely  appealed  to  by  this  tax. 
The  tax  is  urged  as  a  discouragement  of  the  use  of  these 
articles.  Practically,  it  has  no  such  result,  but  simply 
sinks  the  victims  of  appetite  still  deeper  in  poverty.  It 
even  increases  the  hold  of  the  habit.  The  wretchedness 
of  Ireland  and  the  whiskey  of  Ireland  are  reciprocally 
cause  and  effect. 

There  is  with  us  most  marked  inequality  in  this  tax. 
The  impost  on  foreign  wines  serves  to  protect  home 
wines,  and  is  one-fourth  or  one-sixth  of  the  cost  of  these 
drinks  of  the  rich ;  that  on  whiskey,  consumed  by  the 
poor,  is  four  or  six  times  the  cost  of  spirits.  A  device  of 
unmitigated  evil  is  thus  hidden  under  the  guise  of  virtue. 
In  the  mean  time  the  consumption  of  spirits,  adulterated 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

and  heavily  taxed,  has  rapidly  increased.  Nothing  begets 
poverty  and  preserves  it  like  whiskey. 

The  very  secondary  consideration  of  ease  of  assess- 
ment and  collection  seems  to  be  with  us  the  predomi- 
nant consideration,  and  this  ease  means  following  the  line 
of  least  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  wealthy  and  the 
strong.  We  forget  the  truly  judicial  character  of  this 
function  of  taxation,  and  impose  burdens  where,  from 
custom,  ignorance,  indifference  or  weakness,  they  are 
likely  to  be  borne  with  least  complaint.  Clamor  is  the 
one  intolerable  and  inadmissible  thing  in  our  politics ;  far 
more  so  than  injustice.  The  two  leading  points  of  justice 
in  taxation  are  that  those  in  like  relations  shall  be  bur- 
dened in  like  degrees,  and  those  in  unlike  relations  shall 
be  burdened  according  to  their  respective  powers.  This 
is  justice  in  the  law,  and  to  it  we  must  add  justice  in  its 
administration.  Both  the  soundness  of  method  and  the 
soundness  of  administration  are  disregarded  by  us.  The 
wisest  and  most  just  tax  we  have  ever  imposed,  that  on 
incomes,  was  removed,  and  for  reasons  that  should  have 
made  it  the  more  acceptable,  that  it  called  for  openness, 
and  so  for  honesty,  in  business,  and  tended  each  year, 
when  carefully  enforced,  to  a  better  knowledge  of  per- 
sonal and  financial  responsibilities.  By  our  present 
methods  the  most  wealthy  escape  all  due  proportion  of 
the  public  burdens,  which  are  left  to  fall  mainly  and  yet 
unequally  on  those  of  moderate  means  and  on  the  poor. 

Justice  in  the  laying  of  taxes  obviously  requires  that 
they  shall  be  proportioned  to  resources.  This  claim 
justifies  not  merely  a  proportion  that  increases  directly 
with  income,  but  one  that  grows  somewhat  more  rapidly 
than  it.  Four  thousand  dollars  yearly  for  the  support  of 
a  household  express  somewhat  more  than  four  times 
the  power  of  one  thousand  dollars ;  and  fifty  thousand 


214  SOCIOLOGY. 

more  than  ten  times  the  liberty  of  expenditure  of  five 
thousand.  It  is  the  margin  of  income  beyond  necessities 
and  beyond  urgent  claims  that  determines  one's  pecun- 
iary liberty  and  power.  Moreover,  one's  indebtedness  to 
the  state  rapidly  increases  with  the  enlargement  of 
wealth.  The  millionaire  owes  the  ready  power  in  time 
and  place  by  which  he  maintains  his  extended  possession 
to  the  omnipresence  of  law.  Personal  protection  and 
private  power  go  but  a  little  way  with  him.  The  poor 
man  hardly  needs  any  other  protection — unless  it  be 
against  the  rich — than  this  of  personal  presence.  This 
principle  of  proportioning  service  to  power  is  the  one  the 
state  is  ever  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  in  an  extremity. 
The  vigorous  are  draughted  into  an  army  of  defence, 
simply  because  they  are  vigorous. 

Justice  in  the  assessment  of  taxes  is  lost  with  us  by  a 
timid,  conservative  temper,  which  says  to  the  influential, 
By  your  leave,  gentlemen.  Not  till  we  are  prepared  to 
assert  justice  in  the  law  itself,  have  we  any  right  to  ex- 
pect justice  in  the  use  of  the  law.  While  those  who 
suffer  injustice  are  not  bold  enough  to  resent  it,  those 
who  inflict  it  will  not  be  considerate  enough  to  correct  it. 
Correction  always  has  demanded,  and  will  continue  to 
demand,  a  spirit  of  resistance  firm  enough  and  strong 
enough  to  insist  on  a  remedy.  It  is  foolish  to  suppose 
that  evil  in  the  social  and  moral  world  will  correct  itself 
by  its  own  development.  Where  the  sense  of  injury  rests 
the  demand  for  redress  must  arise  also,  and  precipitate 
the  crisis.  If  those  who  suffer  are  apathetic,  still  more 
will  those  be  who  inflict  the  suffering.  To  wait  for  pub- 
lic opinion  to  take  the  place  of  law  within  its  own  prov- 
ince, is  to  overlook  the  relation  of  the  two.  Law  is  a 
means  to  public  opinion,  and  when  it  is  a  step  in  order, 
it  must  be  made  as  a  condition  to  all  subsequent  progress. 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 


215 


When  the  sense  of  justice  is  not  strong  enough  to  en- 
force itself  in  and  under  law,  it  certainly  will  not  be  to 
carry  enforcement  beyond  the  range  of  law.  A  primary 
purpose  of  law  is  to  break  down  barriers  not  immediately 
assailable  by  moral  forces.  Discrimination  in  the  impo- 
sition of  taxes  should  be  made  by  us  a  constant  means 
of  correcting  inequalities.  It  is  now  a  potent  means  of 
increasing  them. 

It  is  not  simply  indirect  taxes  which  fall  at  random, 
direct  taxes  are  often  laid  with  very  inadequate  scrutiny 
and  very  unfair  results.  Not  only  is  the  valuation  of 
real  estate  very  variable,  large  amounts  of  personal  prop- 
erty escape  entirely.  If  we  take  any  broad  survey  of  the 
facts  in  city  and  country  the  most  striking  features  in  di- 
rect taxation  are  the  uncorrected  ways  in  which  it  falls, 
and  the  excessive  amounts  borne  by  those  of  moderate 
means. 

The  citizens  of  a  republic,  in  this  matter  of  taxation, 
and  in  other  matters,  as  "  high  license,"  are  constantly 
taking  surreptitiously  the  attitude  of  legislators.  A  pop- 
ular vote  should  express  directly  and  fully  the  popular 
mind.  We  often,  under  the  lead  of  politicians,  make  it 
express,  not  what  we  ourselves  think,  but  what  we  fancy, 
under  all  the  circumstances,  the  people  will  bear.  Hence 
it  is  an  imaginary  idea,  and  not  an  actual  sentiment,  that 
controls  a  popular  verdict.  If  each  man  speaks  and  en- 
forces his  own  convictions,  we  may  at  least  know  what 
are  the  facts  with  which  we  have  to  deal. 

§  6.  The  community  also  needs  a  deeper  sense  of  its 
rights,  and  so  of  its  duties,  in  the  matter  of  franchises. 
Franchises  are  of  the  nature  of  monopolies,  and  stand  for 
common  possessions  placed  at  the  disposal  of  a  few. 
They  should  never,  therefore,  be  allowed  to  lapse  into  pri- 
vate property  simply,  but  should  be  taken  under  the  im- 


2i6  SOCIOLOGY. 

mediate  observation  of  the  community,  in  reference  to  its 
•own  interests.  A  large  number  of  these  franchises  are 
connected  with  commerce.  Railroads,  telegraphs  and  ex- 
press companies,  various  forms  of  manufacture  associated 
with  railroads,  as  of  rolling  stock,  and  forms  of  production 
Indirectly  connected  with  them,  as  of  oil  and  coal,  involve 
the  possession  of  advantages  due  to  a  certain  stage  of  so- 
cial development,  and  incident  to  the  form  of  that  devel- 
opment. To  these  are  to  be  added  many  companies  en- 
gaged in  a  service,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  narrow, 
and  therefore  more  or  less  exclusive,  gas  companies,  water 
companies,  and  some  forms  of  banking.  These  are  direct 
outgrowths  of  the  common  strength,  and  closely  associ- 
ated with  it.  If  they  are  allowed  to  fall  unreservedly  into 
the  hands  of  individuals,  they  confer  an  advantage  often- 
times very  great,  correspondingly  unequal,  and  so  dan- 
gerous to  progress.  The  state  is  bound  to  know  its  own 
and  to  watch  over  it.  The  exceedingly  sound  principle, 
that  we  are  not  to  trammel  individual  enterprise,  must  be 
held  in  check  by  the  equally  sound  principle,  that  private 
enterprise  must  not  be  allowed  to  trespass  on  the  public 
welfare.  If  we  cannot  lose  this  enterprise,  because  it  is 
full  of  energy,  we  cannot  trust  it  unreservedly,  because  it 
is  full  of  self-interest.  To  allow  the  enterprise  of  the 
more  enterprising  unrestricted  action,  may  often  be  to  al- 
low it  to  smother  the  enterprise  of  the  less  enterprising. 
Great  franchises,  lost  to  the  public,  interfere  at  once  and 
extendedly  with  that  redistribution  of  advantages,  that 
perpetual  growth  of  the  community,  for  which  we  are 
pleading.  Advantageous  order  in  society  is  a  movable 
equilibrium,  is  the  resultant  of  a  quiet  and  ever-renewed 
collision  of  forces,  is  a  balance  of  conflicting  tendencies 
expressed  on  the  one  side  as  personal  power,  and  on  the 
other  as  common  rights. 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

The  ease  with  which  a  franchise  throws  itself  athwart 
the  path  of  general  prosperity  was  recently  shown  in 
London.  The  gas  companies  of  the  city,  "  large  and  lu- 
crative monopolies,"  sought  for  an  injunction  against  the 
use  of  steam-rollers,  as  endangering  their  pipes.  These 
rollers  had  been  found  very  effective  in  securing  a  very 
important  and  general  object,  streets  firm  and  smooth. 
The  pressure,  however,  exerted  by  these  rollers  was 
greater  than  the  gas-pipes  could,  in  all  cases,  bear.  A 
great  public  improvement,  therefore,  was  brought  to  an 
end  by  a  "  vested  interest,"  a  public  service  held  as  pri- 
vate property.  The  concession  of  the  city  to  these  com- 
panies was  pleaded  against  the  city  to  the  loss  of  its  fur- 
ther power  in  a  most  important  particular.  Said  The 
Spectator  in  commenting  on  this  decision,  "  Law  is  a  con- 
servative science,  and  when  it  gets  hold  of  a  principle  it 
cares  little  how  anachronistic  and  obstructive  to  progress 
the  application  of  the  principle  may  be." 

The  immense  power,  a  power  unknown  to  the  past, 
conferred  on  the  owners  and  managers  of  railroads  ought 
especially  and  constantly  to  be  subject  to  official  criti- 
cism. If  we  allow  the  ordinary  rights  of  private  property 
to  attach  to  these  franchises,  we  are  putting  the  people 
into  the  hands  of  corporations.  The  measure  of  respon- 
sibility should  keep  pace  with  the  greatness  of  the  power 
conferred.  It  is  nothing  short  of  usurpation  to  claim 
these  privileges  for  private  ends  simply ;  hushing  the 
complaints  of  legislators  and  persons  of  influence  by 
an  extended  system  of  passes.  Neglect  of  protection 
against  this  new  and  strong  creature  of  law  has  resulted 
and  must  result  in  much  mischief. 

Patent  rights  and  copyrights  are  very  wise  in  them- 
selves, but  are  often  grasped  at  and  used  as  if  they  came 
strictly  under  the  head  of  private  property.  Any  inven- 


2Ig  SOCIOLOGY. 

tion,  like  that  of  the  telephone,  or  of  the  Bessemer  proc- 
ess in  the  manufacture  of  steel,  may  well  bring  the  in- 
ventor large  returns,  yet,  as  these  returns  are  wholly  de- 
pendent on  a  direct  provision  of  law,  there  is  no  reason 
why  they  should  be  allowed  to  become  exorbitant. 
The  law,  standing  for  the  community,  having  made  its 
first  wise  concession,  is  not  afterward  to  remain  blind  and 
dumb,  no  matter  how  the  public  well-being  may  suffer. 
The  state,  once  a  party  to  the  transaction,  remains  a 
party  to  it  to  the  end.  Having  provided  for  the  compen- 
sation of  the  inventor  in  a  patent,  it  should  also  see  that 
his  reward  is  not  excessive,  and  at  the  expense  of  the 
public. 

It  is  on  this  principle  that  the  establishment  of  an  in- 
ternational copyright  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  measure  of 
very  doubtful  wisdom.  It  is  more  frequently  urged  on 
the  ground  of  simple  justice.  The  copyright  gains  of  an 
author  are  regarded  as  belonging  to  him,  as  much  so  as 
the  returns  of  any  form  of  labor.  Herein  is  overlooked 
what  is  so  readily  overlooked,  the  contribution  of  society 
to  the  composite  result,  and  the  interest  of  society  in  that 
result.  It  is  positive  law  that  habilitates  the  author  with 
the  power  by  which  he  converts  the  intangible  products 
of  the  mind  into  goods,  and  makes  them  yield  a  revenue. 
The  author  alone  has  no  such  potency,  nor  even  the 
germs  of  it.  It  is  the  state  that,  with  omnipresence, 
watches  over  its  decree,  and  at  every  place  and  each  in- 
stant turns  the  spiritual  possession  of  authorship  into  the 
civil  one  of  ownership.  As  the  state  is  the  chief  and 
effective  agent  in  this  transformation,  it  may  well  define, 
in  reference  to  its  own  interests,  broadly  considered,  the 
conditions  on  which  it  will  undertake  the  work.  If  a 
term  of  years  and  its  own  limited  area  give  sufficient  ex- 
tension to  copyright  to  stimulate  and  reward  production, 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  2IQ 

then  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  enlarging  these 
limits,  either  in  space  or  in  time,  and  such  an  enlarge- 
ment is  a  squandering  of  the  public  inheritance.  Free 
goods  in  literature  may  still  be  the  wise  rule  between 
nations,  when  the  authors  of  each  nation  are  adequately 
remunerated  within  its  own  bounds.  The  principle 
which  leads  to  a  limitation  in  time  is  precisely  that 
which  narrows  the  extent  of  territory. 

The  chief  objection  to  international  copyright  arises  at 
the  very  point  we  have  been  considering,  an  equality  of 
advantages.  A  copyright  of  this  order  would  result 
almost  exclusively  in  increasing,  at  the  public  expense, 
returns  of  labor  already  large,  and  in  putting  them  in  still 
more  unfortunate  contrast  with  the  returns  of  labor  in 
other  directions,  in  the  same  literary  class  and  other 
classes ;  and,  it  may  readily  be,  with  the  profits  of  labor 
of  equal  intrinsic  worth.  The  novelist,  essayist,  poet  and 
popular  writer  of  every  description  would  find  their  gains 
much  enlarged,  while  the  more  laborious  and  patient 
workers  in  science,  art,  philosophy,  would  remain  with 
no  additional  reward.  It  is  such  authors  as  Charles 
Dickens  and  Charles  Reade  that  are  much  in  earnest  in 
pushing  their  claims,  so  called.  Not  till  the  demand 
for  a  work  is  sufficient  to  call  for  a  reprint  will  an  inter- 
national copyright  increase  its  returns,  and  when  a  work 
has  reached  this  stage  of  sale,  a  fair  profit  is  already 
assured. 

The  great  objection  to  such  a  measure  lies  in  the  very 
temper  which  demands  it,  the  implied  assertion  that  the 
world  is  one's  own  to  win  what  he  can  in  it ;  that  the 
function  of  government  is  to  watch  over  the  winner  and 
maintain  his  game.  It  lies  in  that  increase  of  inequali- 
ties in  distribution  by  which  the  division  of  classes  be- 
comes deeper,  more  permanent,  more  disastrous,  and  the 


220  SOCIOLOGY. 

rewards  of  labor  are  anticipated  by  a  few.  Commercial 
exaction  is  carried  into  literature,  and  the  priority  of 
wealth  gains  still  more  extension.  The  truly  democratic 
temper,  expressed  in  sedulous  limitation  and  careful  re- 
distribution of  advantages,  suffers  one  more  shock.  The 
result  is  quite  like  that  which  arises  in  a  popular  govern- 
ment from  a  steady  increase  of  public  salaries.  The  com- 
mercial spirit  issues  in  large  wealth  and  large  expenditure. 
It  sets  the  standards  of  society,  and  alters  its  style  and 
tone.  The  consequent  growth  in  the  cost  of  living  is 
urged  as  a  reason  for  larger  remuneration.  An  increase 
of  pay  is  conceded,  and  from  this  vantage  ground  the 
same  movement  is  repeated,  with  another  concession  and 
another  step  of  separation.  Thus  the  officers  of  a  re- 
public are  put  more  and  more  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
people,  more  and  more  in  touch  with  wealth  and  the 
aristocratic  sentiments  which  environ  it.  They  are  in- 
creasingly less  able  to  set  limits  to  the  exactions  of  com- 
merce, or  even  to  regard  them  as  exactions.  The  rela- 
tively poor  have  their  burdens  and  the  obstacles  to  prog- 
ress increased  in  many  perceptible  and  imperceptible 
ways  ;  and  yet  these  most  unfortunate  results  seem  to 
have  been  reached  at  each  successive  stage  inevitably 
and  under  sufficient  reasons.  The  trouble  lies  in  the  in- 
herent tyranny  of  the  strong,  no  matter  whether  that 
strength  be  one  of  war  or  of  commerce.  The  people  ad- 
vance in  civilization  and  make  great  gains,  but  they 
make  them  for  a  part  and  not  for  the  whole.  The  few 
appropriate  these  winnings,  as  they  are  able,  with  no  suffi- 
cient recognition  of  the  element  of  joint  labor  and  joint 
ownership. 

The  growing  disposition  to  assume  a  public  responsi- 
bility in  reference  to  the  families  of  presidents  of  the 
United  States,  and  to  grant  them  an  appropriation,  lies 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  221 

in  this  same  unfortunate  direction.  The  duty  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  to  their  rulers  ends  with  the 
relation,  and  certainly  no  exception  should  be  made  in 
favor  of  those  best  able  to  provide  for  themselves.  The 
easy  liberality  of  this  procedure  might  win  for  it  some 
praise,  were  it  not  for  its  hidden  and  ulterior  results. 
Each  encroachment  is  slight,  but  by  means  of  them  all  a 
heavy  burden  is  laid  upon  the  masses,  who,  as  we  have 
seen,  bear  the  load  of  taxation.  They  are  put  by  these 
measures  to  new  disadvantage  at  every  step  in  the  race 
for  prosperity. 

The  subject  of  international  copyright  was  recently  dis- 
cussed in  The  Century.  Many  writers  whose  returns  are 
large  took  part  in  it.  The  claim  was  made  to  rest  almost 
exclusively  on  simple  justice.  James  Russell  Lowell  put 
it  curtly  in  these  lines  : 

"  In  vain  we  call  old  notions  fudge, 

And  bend  our  conscience  to  our  dealing ; 
The  ten  commandments  will  not  budge, 
And  stealing  will  continue  stealing." 

He  is  also  credited  with  saying  before  the  congressional 
committee,  that  there  is  one  thing  better  than  cheap 
books,  and  that  is,  honest  books.  In  all  this  there  seems 
to  us  to  be  such  a  bold  begging  of  the  question  as  to  cast 
suspicion  on  the  entire  method  of  thought  which  accom- 
panies it.  The  right  of  ownership  in  forms  of  expression 
does  not  exist  till  it  is  given  by  law,  and  till  this  owner- 
ship accfues  it  cannot  be  stolen.  The  alleged  owner  is 
not  in  possession  of  that  which  he  claims,  and  cannot  be 
deprived  of  it.  If  a  copyright  is  such  a  primitive  piece 
of  property  that  the  state  has  no  option  either  in  giving 
or  withholding  it,  then  this  line  of  argument  holds ;  but 
if  the  power  is  one  which  does  not  exist  till  it  is  conferred, 


222  SOCIOLOGY. 

then  certainly  the  state  may  not  only  exercise  its  discre- 
tion in  conferring  it,  but  is  bound  to  do  so  in  view  of  all 
the  interests  involved.  If  one  must  come  to  the  state  on 
a  question  like  this,  he  has  no  right  to  come  to  it  per- 
emptorily. If  this  line  of  argument  is  good  at  all,  it  is 
good  for  complete  and  perpetual  ownership,  and  not  for 
ownership  for  a  term  of  years. 

The  mere  fact  of  the  creation  by  an  author  of  that 
which  has  intrinsic  worth  does  not  settle  the  question 
how  far  this  worth  shall  be  converted  by  law  into  an  ex- 
change value.  The  fitness  and  extent  of  this  transfer 
remain  an  original  question,  to  be  determined  by  the 
state,  which  can  alone  make  the  conversion.  This  con- 
version  is  the  product  of  its  own  power,  and  that  power 
in  its  full  extent  is  involved  in  it. 

What  a  speaker  says  may  have  great  value,  the  law 
does  not  follow  that  value  in  his  behalf.  The  nature  and 
extent  of  its  protection  are  shaped  by  the  nature  of  the 
case  and  the  public  interest.  Property  may  be  greatly 
increased  in  value  by  improvements  in  its  immediate 
neighborhood.  If  this  enhanced  value  arises  from  a  pub- 
lic park,  the  city  may  follow  it  with  a  tax  ;  but  if  it  is  in- 
cident to  private  enterprise,  the  value  is  lost  to  the  pro- 
ducer ;  he  is  not  allowed  to  claim  the  fruits  of  his  labor. 

The  broad,  sound,  democratic  principle  is,  that  a  nation, 
like  the  United  States,  is  entitled  to  its  own  powers  and 
the  fruits  of  those  powers.  Having  made  ample  returns 
to  its  authors  within  its  own  large  territory,  there  is  no 
sufficient  reason  why  it  should  still  further  increase  these 
profits  at  the  expense  of  the  people  at  large,  by  the  use 
of  its  resources  abroad.  This  is  to  multiply  inequalities 
between  its  own  citizens,  and  enable  an  author  to  harvest 
the  civilized  world  by  the  direct  power  of  his  fellow  sub- 
jects and  to  their  detriment.  One  refers  the  more  readily, 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

in  this  question,  to  so  illustrious  and  valuable  a  writer  as 
James  Russell  Lowell,  because  the  gains  which  would 
accrue  to  him  under  an  international  copyright  would  be 
so  thoroughly  well  bestowed.  But  why  should  even  he 
be  allowed  to  lay  hold  of  power  which  is  really  that  of 
the  people,  and  has  been  achieved  for  their  own  benefit, 
and  use  it  unquestioningly  for  his  own  advantage  ;  and 
the  more  when  this  power  of  theirs  is  urged  against  them 
in  their  own  cause,  and  passed  over  to  his  own  rights  ? 
It  is  the  fitness  of  this  temper  precisely  which  we  deny. 
The  gains  of  civilization  must  be  made  to  accrue  to  the 
many,  and  no  man  should  be  allowed  to  appropriate  them 
without  giving  a  sound  reason  based  on  the  public  wel- 
fare. It  is  this  principle  which  this  discussion  ordinarily 
overlooks,  and  which  we  wish  to  emphasize  ;  the  state 
holds  its  power  in  trust  for  the  many,  and  not  in  bondage 
to  the  few. 

The  fact  that  publishers,  as  the  publishers  of  ency- 
clopaedias— and  all  publishers,  unless  quite  a  new  method 
of  stamps  is  to  be  adopted — would  gain  a  great  extension 
of  a  monopoly  by  an  international  copyright,  is  an  ob- 
jection in  the  same  direction,  the  enhancement  of  differ- 
ences already  too  great.  The  fundamental  objection, 
however,  still  is  that  such  a  law  would  carry  with  it  great 
and  permanent  inequalities  of  distribution  in  a  new  direc- 
tion, and  one  that  ought,  if  possible,  to  be  kept  especially 
clear  from  them — that  of  literary  labor.  The  affiliation 
of  wealth  and  intellect  would  be  promoted  under  the 
constructive  hand  of  the  Government,  and  at  the  cost  of 
the  bulk  of  its  citizens.  It  is  the  right  and  duty  of  the 
state  to  guard  against  such  results. 

§  7.  Another  point  at  which  the  community  stands 
aside,  silent  and  inert,  while  its  rights  are  grossly  violated, 
is  found  in  connection  with  speculative  sales,  in  the  cen- 


224  SOCIOLOGY. 

tres  of  stock  and  produce  exchange.  If  a  man  gambles 
in  a  gambling-house,  though  the  bad  results  are  relatively 
small,  and  brought  home  to  the  person  himself,  the  law 
lays  hold  of  him.  If  he  gambles  in  a  large,  open  assem- 
blage, in  an  exchange,  where  the  results  are  extended  and 
impossible  of  definition  and  confinement,  the  law  has 
nothing  to  offer.  This  is  much  like  saying,  if  a  man  pur- 
chases poison  for  himself,  he  shall  be  punished  ;  but  if  he 
puts  it  in  a  public  spring,  he  shall  go  free.  Not  only  is 
every  man's  ownership  interfered  with  by  speculative 
sales, — enormous  in  themselves,  and  in  reference  to  the 
valid  transactions  with  which  they  are  associated — the 
very  conditions  of  safe  and  prosperous  trade  are  lost. 
Not  only  are  those  engaged  in  these  gambling  exchanges 
debauched  in  their  productive  temper,  the  whole  com- 
munity is  debauched  with  them.  Young  men  lose  the 
first  principles  of  profitable  production,  and  its  fundamen- 
tal impulses.  Disastrous  losses  are  widely  carried  to  the 
prudent  and  industrious,  and  even  to  the  very  poor  in  their 
narrow  savings.  A  banker,  whose  trust  is  of  the  highest 
nature,  whose  responsibility  to  the  community  through 
the  poor,  whose  earnings  he  guards,  is  of  the  gravest 
order,  betrays  himself  and  the  hopes  of  the  poor  and  the 
public  prosperity,  under  the  force  of  a  speculative  tempta- 
tion ;  and  yet  the  state  has  rarely  any  adequate  redress 
to  offer.  To  pass  such  offences  lightly,  and  to  punish 
ordinary  theft  heavily,  is  to  degrade  the  net  of  law  into  a 
trap  for  minnows  ;  is  seemingly  to  add  hypocrisy  to  in- 
efficiency. 

But  ithese  fictitious  purchases  are  associated  with 
legitimate  transactions,  and  pass  into  them  by  insensible 
gradations.  Separation,  says  the  objector,  is  not  easy, 
even  if  it  is  possible.  The  real  difficulty  does  not,  how- 
ever, so  much  lie  in  the  separation,  troublesome  as  this 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  22$ 

may  be,  as  in  the  timidity  which  refuses  to  undertake  it. 
The  commercial  force  of  great  cities  is  on  the  side  of 
wrong-doing,  and  the  community  at  large  is  overawed. 
The  first  purpose  of  government,  that  of  protection,  is 
not  subserved.  The  shocks  of  violent  fluctuation  and 
unavoidable  loss  are  allowed  to  follow  each  other  rapidly 
through  all  the  lines  of  industry,  and  yet  the  state  will 
not,  dare  not,  assert  itself.  Those  who  wish  this  are 
remanded  to  public  sentiment,  when  the  first  declara- 
tion of  public  sentiment  should  be,  These  acts  are  an 
unlawful  disturbance  of  industry,  are  criminal.  The 
members  of  a  great  exchange,  as  the  Board  of  Trade  of 
Chicago,  create  their  own  sentiment.  They  build  them- 
selves up  very  much  in  neglect  of  public  opinion,  and 
in  neglect  of  civil  law,  if  not  in  defiance  of  it. 

Law,  with  its  manifold  refinements,  with  its  disposition 
to  divide  and  divide  again,  would  certainly  be  able  to 
deal  with  the  needful  distinctions  involved  in  trade,  as 
with  other  perplexities,  if  it  should  set  itself  diligently 
to  the  task.  The  law  is  as  often  lost  in  hopeless  hair- 
splitting, from  a  disposition  to  escape  responsibility,  as 
from  too  eager  a  wish  to  assume  it.  The  impotence  of 
the  state  is  now  a  favorite  doctrine,  under  which  the 
weak  are  left  in  the  hands  of  the  strong.  Tyranny  first 
asserted  itself  through  law ;  now  it  asserts  itself  against 
law.  The  spirit  is  the  same,  the  method  only  is  differ- 
ent. The  world  belongs  to  those  who  can  win,  and 
organic  resistance  is  said  to  be  adverse  to  liberty — the 
liberty  to  plunder. 

It  is  also  urged,  that  those  who  engage  in  these  specu- 
lative purchases  suffer  the  punishment  of  their  own  acts. 
Very  true,  and  so  do  all  criminals.  The  real  question  is, 
Are  these  punishments  sufficient  to  check  the  speculative 
spirit,  and  protect  the  community?  A  community  is 
15 


226  SOCIOLOGY. 

never  injured  by  a  heroic,  legal  temper,  provided  it  is  a 
thoroughly  just  and  humane  one.  The  motives  and 
limitations  of  wise  law  are  these  very  interests — just 
public  and  private  liberty. 

§  8.  Laws  of  inheritance  and  entail  offer  an  excellent 
example  of  the  slow  and  unfortunate  growth  of  custom, 
and  of  the  forgetful  way  in  which  the  community  allows 
its  rights  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  individuals.  The 
right  to  make  a  will  was  gained,  step  by  step,  under 
Roman  law ;  and  even  now,  under  English  law,  one 
may  control  the  descent  of  property  for  many  years. 
Evidently,  natural  right,  the  first  fruit  of  personal 
power,  ceases  with  life.  The  world  belongs  to  the 
living,  not  to  the  dead.  The  two  claims  are  irreconcilable, 
that  one  should  do  with  his  own  what  he  wills  while  he 
lives,  and  also  what  he  wills  after  his  death.  The 
last  claim  is  in  reduction  of  the  first  claim  in  posterity. 
If  each  generation  is  to  have  its  full  freedom  in  the 
world,  it  must  in  turn  own  the  world.  Death  must  be 
a  final  relinquishment  of  rights.  What  we  assert  for 
ourselves  in  the  descent  of  property,  we  take  from  our 
children  ;  we  steal  a  portion  of  their  patrimony.  We  are 
not  to  turn  our  power  into  a  limitation  of  like  power  in 
others. 

It  is  also  perfectly  plain,  that  the  laws  of  inheritance 
and  of  testament  rest  for  execution  on  the  state.  The 
right  of  making  a  will  is  a  concession.  The  dead  man 
has  no  power ;  his  hand  holds  nothing,  and  can  confer 
nothing.  Since  the  state  executes  the  trust,  it  should 
do  it  wholly  in  reference  to  its  own  well-being.  Laws  of 
bequest  and  entail,  owing  their  entire  force  to  the  state, 
should  be  bound  very  closely  to  its  welfare.  Laws  of 
inheritance,  supported  by  many  natural  and  most  impor- 
tant interests,  and  laying  a  much  lighter  burden  on  the 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

state,  call  for  a  wisely  conservative  temper.  Yet  at  what 
point  are  a  careful  extension  and  redistribution  of  advan- 
tages more  possible,  or  more  in  order,  than  when  prop- 
erty, under  the  supervision  of  the  state,  is  in  the  act  of 
transfer.  The  state  may  well  make  its  own  well-being 
supreme,  may  well  refuse  to  accumulate  great  wealth  by 
will,  or  even  by  inheritance,  in  a  single  person,  or  to  pass 
it  on  to  remote  times.  The  state  is  not  to  concede  rights 
that  interfere  with  more  immediate  and  more  urgent,  if 
somewhat  less  familiar,  rights.  It  is  time,  without  any 
spirit  of  socialism,  or  any  the  least  disposition  to  limit 
private  enterprise,  but  rather  on  behalf  of  universal  enter- 
prise and  its  constant  renewal,  that  the  state  should  dili- 
gently study  its  duties,  and  reclaim  the  powers  which 
have  been  allowed  to  slip  into  the  possession  of  individ- 
uals, and  have  been  used  by  them  as  a  means  of  unwar- 
rantable self-assertion. 

§  9.  We  are  disposed  to  question  thus  closely  the  in- 
dustrial spirit,  because  it  assumes,  with  an  instinctive 
tyranny,  the  world  and  society  and  the  state  as  tacit 
terms,  silent  factors,  under  which  it  opens  its  transac- 
tions. Law  should  be  a  living  presence  between  man 
and  man,  for  the  restraint  of  each  and  the  aid  of  all.  It 
is  said,  and  with  much  correctness,  that  the  successful 
organizer  in  business — "  entrepreneur  " — increases  the 
returns  of  labor  even  beyond  his  own  share  in  them. 
This  doubtless  is,  in  many  cases,  true,  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  this  increase  belongs,  in  justice,  to  the  busi- 
ness leader.  Workmen  by  being  parties  to  these  trans- 
actions may  also  make  themselves  parties  to  their  profits. 
The  organizer  establishes  the  particular  organization,  but 
the  possibilities  of  that  business  combination  are,  for  the 
most  part,  common  possessions.  These  arise  from  mani- 
fold physical,  social,  moral  qualities,  which  are  the  prod- 


22g  SOCIOLOGY. 

uct  of  society.  If  one  combines  material,  which  I  fur- 
nish him,  in  a  fortunate  way,  I  owe  him  something ;  I  do 
not  owe  him  the  entire  result.  What  I  owe  him  must 
be  determined  in  view  of  the  powers  of  each  and  the  in- 
terests of  both.  What  one  may  call  the  rental  of  social, 
productive  forces  belongs  to  society,  puts  limits  on  the 
returns  of  the  organizer,  and  is  to  be  kept  freely  open  to 
the  laborers.  To  be  sure,  it  lies  far  more  with  the  laborer 
himself  to  maintain  his  share  of  social  advantage  than  it 
does  with  the  state,  but  the  state  can  do  something,  and 
that  something  is  oftentimes  very  essential,  and  is  always 
obligatory. 

There  is  no  principle  of  justice  which  gives  first  terms 
into  the  hands  of  one  individual  as  if  they  were  his  alone. 
When  they  lapse  into  his  possession,  the  slip  must  be 
corrected  at  once.  We  all  owe  ground  rent.  The  gains 
of  combination  belong  to  the  workman  as  to  the  capital- 
ist, and  it  is  his  constant  duty,  and  the  constant  duty  of 
society,  his  representative,  to  see  how  he  can  enter  into 
these  gains  without  at  the  same  time  dissipating  them. 
We  are  not  in  our  thoughts  to  take  workmen  at  a  valua- 
tion, and  then  appropriate  to  ourselves  unreservedly  all 
beyond  their  wages.  This  is  the  curt  method  of  busi- 
ness, but  not  of  wise  oversight.  The  fruits  of  progress 
are  to  be  divided  among  all,  or  a  portion  of  the  com- 
munity cease  to  have  any  interest  in  growth.  Advan- 
tages that  are  common  winnings  are  to  be  redistributed 
in  reference  to  further  gains.  This  is  the  problem  of 
personal  improvement  with  the  workman,  the  problem  of 
safe  growth  with  society,  and  the  problem  of  good-will 
in  the  moral  world. 

A  fortunate  distribution  of  returns  in  production  is 
one  which  renews  and  enlarges  the  motives  of  effort  in 
all  who  share  the  given  labor.  Large  returns  to  capital 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

and  meagre  returns  to  labor  do  not  secure  this  result. 
The  enterprising  capitalist  should  certainly  have,  for  the 
welfare  of  the  community  as  well  as  his  own  welfare, 
favorable  motives  for  exertion;  but  these  motives,  in  the 
form  of  profits,  may  easily  exceed  the  necessities  of  the 
case,  and  may  even,  by  their  very  magnitude,  reduce  the 
incentives  to  continuous  and  sober  production.  There  is 
a  point  of  prosperous  division  between  capital  and  labor 
which  favors  the  welfare  of  each,  and  their  highest 
activity. 

§  10.  But  it  will  be  said,  competition,  as  a  natural  law, 
divides  advantages,  and  this  division  should  be  final.  To 
this  assertion  we  answer,  yes  and  no.  Natural  law  is  not 
to  be  set  aside,  and  cannot  often  be  set  aside ;  but 
natural  law  is  always  to  be  supplemented  by  the  law  of 
reason,  by  well-directed  human  and  humane  endeavor. 
Reason  is  itself  a  higher  natural  law.  Many  object 
strongly  to  combinations  of  workmen,  to  trades  unions. 
They  are  thought  to  interpose  a  foreign  and  very  trouble- 
some and  often  a  dangerous  element  in  the  processes 
of  production  and  the  conditions  of  good  order.  That 
these  unions  are  often  troublesome  and  at  times  danger- 
ous is  very  true ;  that  they  are  foreign  to  the  productive 
process  or  social  growth,  widely  considered,  is  not  true- 
It  is  a  great  gain,  a  very  great  gain,  when  the  working 
classes  cease  to  drift  and  to  encounter  singly  and  with 
little  forecast  the  accidents  and  hard  conditions  of  the 
labor-market.  While  private  thrift  may  go  a  great  way 
in  ameliorating  the  circumstances  of  the  laborer,  much 
farther  than  joint  action  without  it,  a  joint  action  that 
confronts  with  counsel  and  concert  the  obstacles  that  lie 
in  the  path  of  progress  is  a  signal  advantage.  It  is  sur- 
prising how  sharp  is  the  criticism  on  the  mistakes  of  the 
poor,  as  if  the  rich  had  not  been  making  their  mistakes 


SOCIOLOGY. 

since  the  dawn  of  the  industrial  era.  All  classes  must 
learn  to  deliberate,  learn  their  own  true  interests,  the 
safe  ways  of  pursuing  them  in  concert,  and  their  relation 
to  the  interests  of  others.  Much  injustice,  violence  and 
foolish  resistance  are  the  unavoidable  incidents  of  crude 
thought,  but  the  thought  is  more  powerful  for  good  than 
are  these  errors  for  evil,  and  will,  in  due  time,  abolish 
them.  A  portion  of  this  bitterness  of  criticism  arises 
from  the  very  fact  that  the  working  classes  are  clothed 
with  new  strength  by  organization. 

Wealth  owes  its  advantages  in  production  largely  to 
forecast,  combination  and  tacit  concert.  Nothing  can  be 
more  unreasonable  than  to  resent  the  same  tendency  in 
the  working  classes,  and  that  because  it  takes  them, 
as  mere  waifs,  out  of  the  stream  of  traffic.  These 
combinations  are  not  to  be  judged  by  their  earlier 
efforts,  or  by  their  mistakes  alone,  but  by  their  di- 
rection of  growth  and  the  spirit  called  out  by  them. 
It  is  one  of  the  highest  achievements  of  our  time  that 
workmen  are  learning  to  think,  combine,  resist,  aid  ;  and 
all  more  or  less  wisely  under  the  laws  of  production  and  of 
morals.  If  the  gains  of  combination  were  much  less  than 
they  are,  and  the  dangers  even  greater  than  they  are, 
deliberative,  united  effort  would  still  be  the  beginning 
of  better  things.  We  must  be  content  to  pay  the  price 
of  progress.  The  actual  and  probable  evils  of  unions 
among  workmen  are  trifling  compared  with  those  of  war, 
yet  we  are  still  willing  to  try  the  gains  of  war. 

Says  Mr.  Rogers :  "  The  habit  of  making  provision 
against  casualties  arising  from  the  weakness  of  the  individ- 
ual's own  position  in  relation  to  the  risk  of  sickness  or 
other  contingencies,  is  soon  extended  toward  making 
provision  against  the  risks  which  attend  on  employment. 
Thence  it  is  an  easy  stage  to  the  process  by  which 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 


23I 


some  slight  barrier  is  made  against  an  arbitrary  lessen- 
ing of  wages.  This  step  is  aided  by  the  avowed  sym- 
pathy of  those  who  are  convinced  that  labor  should  be 
helped,  or,  at  least,  not  hindered,  in  selling  its  work  at 
the  best  price  which  it  can  get,  and  is  justified  in  resist- 
ing by  all  means  it  can  command  the  process  which 
would  compel  it  to  a  forced  sale  of  the  only  article  of 
value  which  it  possesses.  In  course  of  time  employers 
become  habituated  to  the  process  under  which  work- 
people sell  their  labor,  on  the  same  principle  which  others 
adopt  in  selling  their  goods,  for  the  dealer  knows  the 
ruinous  effect  of  a  compulsory  and  sudden  sale,  and  per- 
haps, finally,  the  sternest  economist  will  come  to  see, 
not  only  that  work-people  may  adopt  the  principle  of  the 
capitalist  in  withholding  goods  from  the  market  till  a 
remunerative  price  is  obtained,  but  that  the  process  ap- 
plied to  labor  is  ultimately  as  beneficial  as  most  persons 
see  it  is  when  applied  to  trade."  * 

The  recent  history  of  co-operation,  though  it  shows 
that  this  principle  by  no  means  contains  the  entire  secret 
of  social  progress,  also  shows  that  it  brings  decisive  prof- 
it and  admirable  discipline  to  the  poor.  Self-assertion  is 
often  disagreeable,  but  it  still  remains  the  root  of  human 
strength.  The  power  to  glean  the  field  and  gather  all 
that  it  affords  is  the  one  great  secret  of  production.  The 
methods  of  the  poor  are  wasteful,  and  this  waste  can  only 
be  fully  corrected  by  concerted  action.  The  excellent 
work  just  referred  to  points  out  many  gains  of  trades- 
unions  in  England.  Earnest  discussion,  united  action, 
the  victory  over  indolent  and  indifferent  impulses,  are 
the  entrance  of  thought  and  freedom,  economy  and  thrift, 
among  the  masses  of  men. 

*  "  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  572. 


232  SOCIOLOGY. 

An  exchange,  a  trade,  is  the  most  constant  and  typical 
fact  in  production.  We  are  to  distinguish  between  what 
we  are  wont  to  regard  as  an  honest  trade,  and  one  which 
is  fair,  economically  desirable.  We  refuse  to  call  any 
trade  dishonest  in  which  there  is  neither  deception  nor 
violence,  no  matter  how  much  it  may  press  upon  one  of 
the  parties,  and  however  unfortunate  may  be  the  social 
relations  indicated  by  it.  A  fair  trade  can  only  take 
place  between  persons  who  hold  something  like  a  parity 
of  positions  in  reference  to  it.  Such  trades  are  prepared 
for  and  approached  with  much  prudence  and  sagacity. 
If  they  are  not  themselves  organic  acts,  they  are  the  for- 
tunate results  of  a  strong  organic  hold  of  person  upon 
person,  class  upon  class.  Questions  of  justice  and  of 
social  prosperity  are  largely  settled  in  connection  with 
the  antecedent  conditions  of  trade. 

The  one  exchange  above  all  exchanges  on  which  the 
well-being  and  progress  of  society  depend  is  that  between 
those  who  purchase  labor  and  those  who  sell  it,  between 
capitalists  and  laborers.  Up  to  the  present  time,  the  rel- 
ative sagacity  of  the  two  classes,  and  the  circumstances 
under  which  they  have  entered  upon  this  trade,  have 
favored  capitalists. 

The  conditions  which  tend  to  carry  the  advantages  of 
purchase  to  one  side,  say  that  of  the  buyer,  are,  relative 
fewness  in  numbers  of  those  who  buy;  the  absence  of  any 
urgency  compelling  the  purchase  ;  and  a  deficiency  in  de- 
mand as  contrasted  with  the  supply.  The  first  enables 
buyers  more  easily  to  order  their  action  in  reference  to 
their  common  interests,  the  second  removes  all  need  of 
haste,  and  the  third  gives  them  the  command  of  the  im- 
mediate market.  All  three  of  these  gains  have  more  fre- 
quently belonged  to  capitalists.  Much  foresight  and 
thrift  are  demanded  on  the  part  of  workmen  for  any  suf- 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  233 

ficient  protection  against  the  power  so  easily  and   early 
won  by  capital. 

It  is  not  desirable  that  either  of  these  classes  should 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  other.  The  conditions  of  fair, 
profitable  trade  are  lost  thereby.  If,  however,  a  predom- 
inant power  could  rest  with  either  advantageously,  it 
would  rest  with  workmen  rather  than  with  capitalists. 
All  that  the  interest  of  the  capitalist  requires  in  reference 
to  workmen  is  their  bare  subsistence.  Or  at  least  this 
is  the  way  in  which  selfishness  may  easily  look  at  the 
relation,  as  this  absolute  dependence  gives  the  most 
immediate  and  complete  power  to  capital.  The  rigor  of 
capitalist — the  rich  purchasing  labor — has  again  and 
again  arrested  social  progress.  This  arrest  is  simply  the 
story  of  luxury  told  in  economic  terms.  Workmen,  on 
the  other  hand,  must  desire  the  prosperity  of  capital. 
From  these  prosperous  returns  their  own  wages  are  to  be 
paid,  and  they  cannot  separate  their  gain  from  the  gains 
of  those  who  employ  them.  When  the  capitalist  can  say 
to  the  laborer,  "  Do  this  or  quit ;  take  these  wages  or 
leave  them  ;  it  matters  not  to  me,  I  run  my  own  busi- 
ness," we  have  all  the  requisites  of  an  intolerable  and  dis- 
astrous social  tyranny.  There  are  no  conditions  of  a 
fair  trade,  no  equality  of  the  two  parties,  in  this  funda- 
mental exchange,  in  their  hold  on  each  other.  The  inde- 
pendence of  the  capitalist  has  come  to  mean  the  com- 
plete dependence  of  the  laborer ;  the  ability  of  the  one 
to  order  his  own  concerns,  the  inability  of  the  other  in 
any  way  to  control  his  affairs.  The  industry  of  the 
laborer,  his  temperance  and  frugality,  his  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility in  accepting  the  burdens  of  a  family,  will,  in 
a  large  measure,  be  lost  to  him  in  their  natural  fruits  by 
these  hard  terms.  He  must  soften  these  conditions  to 


SOCIOLOGY. 

give  the  fullest  motives  to  those  virtues.  Essential  as 
these  virtues  are,  they  are  not  sufficient  by  themselves. 

Combinations  among  workmen  are  designed  to  restore 
something  like  equal  terms  of  purchase  and  sale.  No 
motive  could  be  more  laudable,  no  effort  more  just. 
Strikes — and  far  worse,  boycotting — are  the  undesirable 
and  often  the  unfortunate  incidents  of  this  movement, 
but  the  movement  itself,  as  a  thoughtful  reaching  out  of 
workmen  for  their  own  proper  power,  is  one  absolutely 
essential.  If  all  skilled  workmen  were  thoroughly  com- 
bined, they  would  stand  on  quite  new  and  far  more  just 
terms  with  capital.  There  would  be  a  serious  loss  of  in- 
dividual liberty,  but  a  great  gain  in  the  aggregate  of 
power.  This  power  would  be  respected,  and  the  two 
parties  to  exchange,  each  necessary  to  the  other,  each  de- 
pendent and  independent,  would  be  prepared  for  sound 
reason.  Strikes  would  retire  into  the  background.  The 
present  temptation  to  violence  arises  very  much  from  the 
sense  of  weakness  and  wrong.  Those  who  combine  are 
enraged  that  their  efforts  in  the  common  cause  should  be 
made  unavailing  by  the  improvidence  of  men  of  their 
own  class.  They  are  nettled  also  by  their  own  weakness, 
and  by  the  easy  mastery  of  their  adversaries.  They  are 
tempted  to  an  illegal  and  unjustifiable  use  of  the  one 
power  of  which  they  are  conscious, — physical  strength. 
Sufficient  social  power  on  their  part  would  sober  both  par- 
ties, and  prosperity  would  soon  silence  all  complaints. 

There  can  be  no  hostility  to  wealth,  or  to  those  wealthy, 
by  those  engaged  in  legitimate  production  in  an  industrial 
era.  We  are  all  only  too  concessive  to  this  dominant 
temper,  and  to  methods  sustained  by  familiarity  and  all 
outward  forms  of  gain.  We  forget,  in  this  strife  between 
labor  and  capital,  how  easily  power  passes  to  the  side  of 
capital,  and  how  sharp  and  constant  must  be  the  resistance. 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  235 

Many  advantages  fall  of  themselves  into  the  hands  of  the 
wealthy.  Influential  papers  are  founded  by  them,  and  in 
turn  support  their  cause.  They  establish  professorships 
and  select  the  men  to  fill  them.  They  retain  the  best 
legal  ability ;  they  elect  legislators  and  greatly  influence 
them  ;  they  repress  the  pulpit ;  in  many  ways  they  shape 
public  sentiment  to  their  own  purposes.  All  interests 
seek  this  alliance  of  strength,  and  are  troubled  when 
capital  is  troubled.  Nothing  prospers  like  prosperity  in 
all  the  terms  of  influence. 

The  workman  feels  these  accumulated  and  accumulat- 
ing advantages  on  the  part  of  those  he  meets  first  in 
the  struggle  of  life,  and  finds  but  one  weapon  in  his 
hand — combination.  The  growing  power  of  the  difficul- 
ties with  which  he  struggles  is  palpable.  Industrial  equi- 
librium is  being  rapidly  lost  in  a  community  in  which  a 
single  family,  in  little  over  one  generation,  can  amass 
two  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  Such  a  thing  cannot 
occur  without  indicating  a  disastrous  disturbance  of  the 
entire  balance  of  interests  in  production.  Facts  like 
these  call  for  new  methods  and  new  exertion.  The 
combination  of  workmen  is  the  change  in  our  social 
condition  which  answers  most,  hopefully  to  this  rapid 
change  in  social  forces.  The  advantages  of  these  combi- 
nations are  very  great,  great  enough  to  overbalance  the 
grave  evils  which  accompany  them  :  the  violence,  mis- 
taken and  anarchical;  the  injury  done  to  the  means  of 
production  and  to  the  sense  of  security  which  production 
requires,  and  the  great  loss  of  personal  liberty  on  the  part 
of  workmen.  Strikes,  the  bad  concomitants  of  combina- 
tion, are  to  be  judged  not  by  the  number  of  instances  in 
which  they  have  succeeded  in  their  immediate  object,  but 
by  the  new  sentiments  and  changed  relations  in  the  com- 
munity which  attend  on  them.  They  must  be  judged  as 


236 


SOCIOLOGY. 


war  has  been  judged, — a  still  more  wasteful,  disastrous 
and  unreasonable  method  of  redress— by  what  would 
have  been  without  it. 

Combination  implies  deliberation,  all  minds  awake  to 
evils,  rights,  and  remedies.  Jt  gives  the  sense  of  power, 
and  with  it  slowly  come  that  of  responsibility,  and  the 
accompanying  desire  for  wisdom  and  justice.  The 
regenerative  processes  of  thought  are  sent,  as  a  new 
leaven,  down  through  the  lowest  strata  of  society. 
The  great  problem  of  humanity  is  thrown  directly  on  the 
masses  for  solution,  and  they  learn,  as  they  cannot  other- 
wise  learn,  to  plan  for  the  general  well-being  and  make 
sacrifices  for  it ;  to  unite  their  interests  to  the  interests 
of  all,  and  to  build  wisely  on  foundations  of  fact  and  of 
principle.  The  moral,  political,  social  training  of  the 
people  turns  on  these  practical  lessons,  lessons  no  more 
costly  than  the  world  has  always  found  wisdom  to  be. 
The  respect  which  the  power  incident  to  combination 
inspires  in  all  classes  reacts  on  the  workman  in  a  most 
wholesome  way,  opens  before  him  a  new  career,  and 
gives  to  life  a  higher  class  of  motives.  A  sense  of  power 
is  good  for  all  men,  and  tends,  on  the  whole,  to  make 
them  all  good. 

Such  gains  as  these  are  to  be  no  more  weighed  here  than 
elsewhere  with  the  losses  which  accompany  them,  the 
price  which  is  paid  for  them.  The  workman,  in  his  turn, 
is  entitled  to  his  mistakes ;  that  is,  he  has  the  right  of 
progress  by  means  of  and  in  spite  of  mistakes.  As  more 
ignorant  and  more  irritable  and  less  aided  than  some 
other  classes,  this  right  to  err  may  be  a  formidable  one 
both  for  him  and  for  us. 

There  is  a  kind  of  criticism,  heard  in  the  pulpit  as  well 
as  elsewhere,  from  which  we  can  hope  very  little,  a 
criticism  that  sees  clearly  the  evils  which  accompany  the 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS,  237 

convulsions  of  labor  seeking  its  own,  the  extraneous  and 
factitious  mischiefs  which  attach  to  them  by  becoming 
an  occasion  for  socialism  and  riot,  and  brings  to  these 
a  sharp  condemnation,  and  that  without  entering  pro- 
foundly either  into  the  burdens  borne  by  workmen  or  the 
difficulties  which  obstruct  every  effort  for  their  removal. 
We  have  occasion  as  often  to  see  distinctly  what  is,  and 
what  is  possible,  as  what  ought  to  be.  If  we  rest  on  the 
perfect  idea  and  the  perfect  method  alone,  we  shall 
deepen  the  very  evils  we  deprecate.  Workmen  will  listen 
to  those  who  feel  the  hardships  of  their  position,  not 
to  those  who  disparage  these  hardships ;  not  to  those 
who  are  always  impressed  with  the  mischiefs  of  the  rem- 
edy, and  forever  renew  the  counsel  of  patience,  as  if  it 
were  given  to  children. 

What  ought  to  be,  is  this  :  every  method  of  produc- 
tion and  taxation,  directly  or  remotely  oppressive  to 
labor,  should  be  corrected  by  law  and  custom  ;  equal 
and  favorable  conditions  should  be  assiduously  sought 
for  the  working  classes  by  the  free  discussion  and  conces- 
sion of  all  classes.  What  will  be,  is  this :  workmen  will 
assert  their  rights,  oftentimes  in  an  extreme  and  mis- 
taken way;  they  will  bring  disturbance  and  danger  to 
the  entire  community;  the  community  will  then  come  to 
see  familiar  facts  in  quite  a  new  light,  will  find  in  connec- 
tion with  them  new  possibilities  and  accept  new  responsi- 
bilities. When  was  the  liberty  of  a  people  ever  won  with- 
out an  army — an  organization  the  most  irreconcilable  with 
large  personal  liberty.  As  things  now  are,  the  best  thing 
we  can  hope  for  is  a  speedy  and  universal  organization  of 
labor,  a  rapid  and  light  passage  through  attendant  mis- 
fortunes, a  new  sense  of  justice  in  the  entire  community, 
and  a  speedy  falling  to  pieces  of  these  organizations  of 


SOCIOLOGY. 

labor,  a  more  favorable  balance  of  power  having  been 
won  by  them. 

Boycotting  in  this  movement  is  much  like  assassination 
in  war,  too  intolerable  for  human  nature,  bad  as  it  is.  It 
may  well  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  claims  of 
the  capitalist,  that  he  will  or  will  not  employ  any  laborer 
precisely  as  he  pleases  ;  that  he  will  dismiss  a  laborer  for 
belonging  to  an  organization  of  labor  ;  and  that  he  will 
refuse  to  re-employ  one  who  has  taken  part  in  a  strike 
in  connection  with  such  an  organization,  contain  the  en- 
tire principle  of  boycotting  in  one  of  its  most  cruel  forms. 
The  capitalist  takes  upon  himself  the  task  of  punishing 
a  laborer,  by  withholding  the  means  of  earning  his  daily 
bread,  because  he  has  sought  the  interest  of  the  class 
to  which  he  belongs  by  deliberation  and  combination. 

The  spirit  with  which  we  should  enter  on  this  labor 
question  is  this :  we  must  find  now,  at  all  hazards,  the 
true  and  final  remedy  of  these  wrongs.  The  well-to-do, 
who  have  no  profound  humanity,  and  are  full  of  soft 
words  and  conventional  phrases,  must  not  expect  any 
great  influence  in  hushing  this  strife. 

If  we  are  to  hold  fast  our  respect  for  law,  if  we  are  to  in- 
spire anew  respect  for  it  in  the  minds  of  the  discontented, 
law,  under  the  perpetual  regeneration  of  new  necessities 
and  a  fresh  sense  of  justice,  must  be  carefully  ordered  in 
behalf  of  the  interests  of  all.  Great  possessions  must 
not  be  constantly  won  by  unfair  and  dishonest  methods, 
and  law  not  so  much  as  observe  the  fact.  Great  fran- 
chises must  not  be  held  as  purely  personal  property,  and 
then  used  for  the  oppression  of  labor.  One  fifth  of  the 
capital  of  the  nation — as  in  the  case  of  railroads — must 
not  be  gathered  into  the  hands  of  a  few,  and  these  few 
be  put  under  no  more  restraints  in  their  control  of  work- 
men than  are  incident  to  narrow,  private  enterprise.  The 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 


239 


people  acting  as  a  police,  a  militia,  an  army,  must  not  be 
expected  to  enforce  a  la^v  and  order  in  which  they  have 
not  fully  equal  stakes.  The  unusual  productive  oppor- 
tunities of  the  world  offered  in  lands,  mines,  forests,  rail- 
roads, telegraphs  must  not  be  left  a  prey  to  speculative 
and  irresponsible  appropriation.  The  laborer  must  not 
be  told  that  no  new  division  of  returns  is  possible  in  con- 
nection with  successful  production,  when  he  sees  that 
the  expenditures  of  wealth  are  becoming,  with  a  rapid 
uplift,  fabulous,  when  the  demand  is  constant  for  an  in- 
crease of  salaries  on  these  very  grounds,  and  when  the 
incidence  of  taxation  is  resting  heavily  on  the  class  to 
which  he  belongs. 

If  we  wish  a  quiet  solution  of  the  problem  of  labor, — 
as  we  should  wish  with  all  our  patriotic  and  moral  sense, 
—we  must  show  our  desire  by  attacking  vigorously  the 
profound,  provoking  evils,  and  not  by  covering  them  up 
under  general  principles,  and  reserving  our  criticism  for 
the  remedies  offered.  The  heart  of  the  people  is  moving 
toward  justice  ;  our  wisdom  is  found  in  seeing  the  fact, 
and  in  clearing  the  way. 

§  1 1.  In  considering  social  problems,  we  are  not  inquiring 
simply,  What  can  be  immediately  done  for  society  ?  What 
is  likely  to  be  done  in  the  correction  of  evils  ?  but  also, 
What  are  some  of  those  more  remote  points  toward  which 
progress  is  to  be  made?  One  of  the  questions  which  has 
not  yet  fully  and  distinctly  risen  in  the  general  con- 
sciousness, is  that  of  the  mission  of  the  pulpit  in  Protest- 
ant countries.  Ultra  socialists  have  disposed  of  re- 
ligion, and  of  course  of  the  pulpit.  They  look  upon  re- 
ligion as  one  of  the  strongest  of  the  conservatory  bar- 
riers of  society,  and  so  are  deeply  hostile  to  it.  In  this 
attitude  they  do  it  much  credit  ;  it  is,  however,  greatly 
to  be  desired,  that  this  hostile  criticism  should  show  no 


240  SOCIOLOGY. 

element  of  truth.  We  can  usually  find  in  the  unsparing 
words  of  an  avowed  enemy  the  points  of  weakness  in  our 
lines  of  defence.  Says  Schaeffle,  one  of  the  more  moder- 
ate and  reasonable  of  socialists,  "  Socialists  pronounce 
the  Church  to  be  a  police  institution  in  the  hands  of  capi- 
tal, and  that  it  cheats  the  proletariat  with  bills  of  exchange 
on  Heaven.  It  deserves  to  perish."  *  These  words  ex- 
press a  very  general  sentiment,  and  the  sting  in  them  is 
that  religion  often  adapts  itself  blindly  to  the  existing 
social  state,  and  so  becomes  conservative  of  its  evils.  In 
the  case  before  us,  the  pulpit  may  easily  enforce  content- 
ment and  religious  trust  on  the  poor ;  while  identify- 
ing itself  with  the  well-to-do,  and  forgetful  of  the  re- 
ciprocal duty  of  doing  all  that  in  it  lies  to  correct  social 
evils,  and  equalize  social  advantages.  It  is  this  hidden 
temper  of  the  pulpit  that  the  popular  champion  feels, 
and  for  which  he  will  not  take  any  flimsy  apology  or  for- 
mal protestation. 

The  province  and  purpose  of  the  pulpit,  as  hitherto 
understood,  may  well  receive  some  modification.  Under 
a  change  of  circumstances,  the  old  idea  becomes  anti- 
quated. This  sentiment  may  be  resisted,  but  it  rests  on 
the  universal  law  of  change.  Doctrinal  statements  and 
enforcements,  the  maintenance  of  denominations,  even 
religious  ordinances,  and  worship  and  discipline  ordered 
under  these  ends,  fail  to  fully  meet  the  larger  and  better 
spirit  that  is  finding  admission  in  modern  thought. 
Does  this  new  sentiment,  hardly  yet  fully  conscious  of 
itself,  hardly  as  yet  knowing  either  what  it  is  or  what  it 
should  be,  look  forward  to  the  lapse  of  distinctively  re- 
ligious activity  into  broad  social  duties?  The  earnest 
discussion  of  the  relation  of  the  pulpit  to  politics  opens 

*"  Communism  and  Socialism,"  p.  223. 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 


241 


this  question.  The  office. of  the  pulpit  does  not  seem  to 
be  either  ephemeral  or  dependent  on  the  propagation  of 
definite  doctrines,  nor  on  an  exact  ritual,  nor  on  the  per- 
formance of  services  termed  sacred.  Doctrine  and  ritual 
and  service  may  give  specific  form  to  its  work,  but  do 
not  involve  the  very  substance  of  that  work,  nor  furnish 
the  ground  of  need  on  which  the  pulpit  rests. 

'The  interpretation,  in  some  sense  the  administration, 
of  the  law  of  love  in  both  its  branches  is  the  vital  func- 
tion of  the  pulpit  in  society.  It  will  become  more  and 
more  the  office  of  the  ministry  to  inspire  and  adminis- 
ter that  charity  by  which  men  are  bound  to  God,  and 
harmonized  with  each  other  in  his  kingdom.  The  truths, 
and  so  the  incentives,  and  so  the  rites,  and  so  the  ser- 
vices of  religion  will  be  urged  and  used  primarily  for 
individual  and  social  growth.  <I  think  that  many  must 
feel,  I  know  that  some  do  feel,  in  listening  to  aver- 
age pulpit  discussions  that  they  are  behind  the  age,  not 
in  the  easy,  popular  way  in  which  we  use  the  words,  but 
profoundly,  so ;  and  that  they  are  often  most  signally 
behind  the  age  when  a  superficial  effort  is  being  made  to 
keep  up  with  it.  The  old  gospel  is  the  new  gospel,  but 
it  is  none  the  less  a  new  gospel.  Truth  is  ripe  truth 
which  touches  thought  and  action  in  their  present 
springs,  which  impels  men  into  instant  life,  in  them- 
selves and  in  society.  The  very  conception  of  truth, 
and  of  the  true  form  of  life,  are  undergoing  change; 
and  a  pulpit  that  does  not  sufficiently  feel  this  fact,  and 
is  not  prepared  to  take  part  in  it,  becomes  wearisome 
and  unprofitable.  It  leaves  thought  unquickened  and 
conduct  unguided. 

The  time  has  come  in  which  the  foundations  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  as  a  present  social  structure,  are  to 
be  laid,  broadly,  wisely,  conspicuously.  In  this  direction 
16 


242 


SOCIOLOGY. 


lie  the  immediate  applications  of  spiritual  truth.  The 
supernatural  is  to  show  itself  in  these  natural  results ; 
the  divine  to  incarnate  itself  afresh  in  the  daily  life  of 
men.  The  individual,  at  least  the  average  individual, 
cannot  grow,  save  as  he  has  his  share  in  this  growth  of 
the  world  about  him.  Spiritual  progress,  therefore,  in 
our  time  lies  for  each  and  for  all  in  the  passage  from  the 
first  to  the  second  command,  from  the  love  of  God  to 
the  love  of  our  neighbor.  Unbelief  and  socialism  are 
present  to  push  us  forward  to  this  very  transfer.  If  re- 
ligious defences  are  broken  down,  if  religious  hopes  are 
lost,  we  shall  restore  these  defences  and  regain  these 
hopes,  not  by  reiteration,  not  by  striving  to  live  the  past 
over  again,  but  by  going  forward,  listening  to  the  voices 
that  are  in  the  air,  and  doing  the  duties,  the  very  duties, 
that  are  waiting  to  be  more  fruitful  than  any  that  have 
ever  been  rendered  in  the  history  of  the  world.  We  are 
afraid  of  the  very  conditions  of  growth. 

When  such  a  question  is  put  as  this,  Ought  the  pulpit 
to  discuss  politics  ?  we  show  that  we  are  beginning  to 
see,  and  yet  failing  to  see,  the  true  work  of  the  hour. 
There  is  a  most  important  sense  in  which  religion  is  for 
politics  and  social  life,  and  for  them  primarily.  To  with- 
draw it  from  these  is  to  make  it  effete  and  worthless ;  is 
to  do  again  that  profoundly  immoral  thing,  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  present  life  as  out  of  sorts  with  the  life  which 
is  to  follow  it,  and  as  united  to  it  in  an  arbitrary  way. 

The  chief  reason  why  men  will  not  bear  urgent  spirit- 
ual truth  in  politics  is,  because  they  live  in  politics,  and 
are  profoundly  interested  in  its  results.  A  chief  reason 
why  they  will  bear  it  readily  in  doctrine  is,  because  they 
care  comparatively  little  about  doctrine,  and  are  quite 
willing  that  the  clergy  shall  hammer  this  cold  iron  again 
and  again  at  their  leisure. 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

As  a  condition  of  true  spiritual  liberty,  two  things 
must  be  learned  :  that  the  immediate  function  of  relig- 
ious truth  is  revelation,  light,  universal  guidance ;  aftd 
that  each  man  and  all  men  alike  must  have  the  full  free- 
dom of  the  truth.  None  are  to  be  pushed,  even  though, 
it  be  toward  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

If  an  element  of  authority  is  to  go  with  the  pulpit,  it 
must  of  necessity  withdraw  from  every  department  in 
which  men  are  at  work ;  but  if  it  withdraws,  it  is  no 
longer  a  living  thing.  Nothing  short  of  a  deep,  tender, 
patient  inspiration  will  now  serve  our  purpose,  or  make 
the  pulpit  alive.  To  handle  truth  luminously,  incisively, 
concessively,  and  to  carry  it  forward  fearlessly  as  a  torch 
to  every  phase  of  social  action,  this  is  the  office  of  the 
ministry :  the  sanctions  of  religion  are  with  it  for  tljis 
very  end,  and  while  it  has  even  a  little  of  this  power,  no 
man  will  deny  its  right  to  be.  The  minister  is  to  be  a 
priest,  but  a  workman  as  well  as  a  priest,  in  the  temple — 
the  living,  social  temple — of  God.  He  is  to  bring  light, 
but  a  light  to  be  used  by  each  man  as  he  is  able  ;  a  light, 
like  that  of  the  sun,  which  quickens  many  forms  of 
growth,  rules  none  of  them,  and  withers  none  of  them. 
The  patience  of  the  pulpit  should  be  like  the  patience  of 
God,  and  its  insight  like  the  eye  of  God. 

The  press  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  true  pulpit  of 
our  time.  There  is  a  superficial  force  in  this  assertion,  as 
the  press  shouts  from  the  house-tops  to  the  crowded 
streets.  If  the  pulpit  cannot  do  this  same  thing  with  a 
more  penetrative  and  pervasive,  and  truly  persuasive 
voice,  its  function  may  easily  depart  from  it.  Yet  the 
press  is  the  crier  rather  than  the  evangelist  of  our  time. 
It  has  quickened  and  extended  intellectual  activity  im- 
mensely. Discussion  is  rapidly  ripened  by  it,  a  decision 
is  precipitated,  and  action  made  to  follow  at  once.  It  is 


244 


SOCIOLOGY. 


far  more  hopeful,  and  also  far  more  critical,  to  live  and 
act  now  than  at  any  previous  period.  All  minds  are 
awake,  and  each  new  venture  is  quickly  borne  on  its 
way  or  quickly  engulfed.  The  press,  if  we  look  at  it  in 
its  entire  sweep,  is  indifferent  to  good  and  evil,  truth  and 
falsehood,  purity  and  impurity.  It  is  an  instrument  to 
each  of  them.  Yet  motion  and  revelation  stand  in  di- 
vine affinity  with  purity  and  with  truth  ;  and  so  the 
press,  though  it  seems,  like  a  mechanical  thing,  to  be 
indifferent  to  virtue,  becomes  a  roller  under  our  civiliza- 
tion, bearing  it  forward. 

There  is  in  this  office  of  the  press  not  only  nothing 
which  interferes  with  the  work  of  the  pulpit,  there  is  much 
to  make  it  more  urgent.  The  press  is  a  reflection  of  the 
world  as  it  is.  It  is  secular  in  its  purpose  and  spirit. 
If  society  is  to  win  any  real  inspiration,  it  must  look  for 
it  to  the  pulpit,  not  to  the  press.  No  generation  has 
made  a  more  urgent  call  for  insight  and  worship  and 
silent  faith  than  our  own. 

§  12.  Deeply  as  we  may  at  times  be  impressed  with 
the  tyranny  of  custom,  at  other  times  we  see  its  neces- 
sity and  constructive  force  so  clearly  as  to  be  inclined 
to  accept  it  with  unquestioning  obedience.  A  frontier 
town  falls  into  chronic  lawlessness  from  the  want  of 
custom,  conventional  sentiment ;  a  score  of  communistic 
organizations  are  formed  and  fall  to  pieces  in  the  circuit 
of  a  half  dozen  years,  simply  because  they  have  broken 
too  boldly  with  custom.  All  their  hopes  and  high  en- 
deavors perish  almost  at  once,  because  of  a  reason  that 
questions  the  past  too  saucily. 

Socialism,  a  systematic  break  with  tradition,  is  a  prob- 
lem of  much  moment  with  us.  It  has  almost  universally 
failed  in  its  numerous  and  narrow  experiments  in  a  com- 
munistic form.  Those  efforts  which  have  prospered 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

have  been  sustained  by  a  strong  religious  sentiment ;  a 
fact  full  of  instruction.  These  successful  communities 
have  also  usually  made  an  inroad  on  marriage  and  the 
family  relation,  of  a  more  or  less  decided  character. 
The  natural  unit,  the  family,  does  not  easily  unite  with 
the  artificial  unit,  a  communistic  community.  Herein, 
in  the  aid  rendered,  is  seen  the  readiness  with  which  the 
religious  impulse  may  be  misdirected,  and  also  its  su- 
preme force  as  a  combining  power. 

Socialism,  having  failed  by  its  own  organizing  energy 
to  establish  any  centres  for  a  larger  movement,  now 
looks  in  its  last  stage  to  revolution  and  social  overthrow 
for  success.  Its  ultimate  purpose  is  a  noble  one ;  its 
immediate  aims  seem  very  mistaken  and  dangerous,  and 
the  means  occasionally  diabolical.  What  it  proposes  to 
do,  it  does  for  that  most  comprehensive  and  desirable 
of  objects,  the  elevation  of  the  mass  of  men.  The 
means  to  this  end  are,  first,  equality  of  conditions,  and, 
secondly,  as  securing  this  equality,  the  ownership  of  land 
and  capital  by  the  community.  The  state  is  to  be  sole 
possessor  of  the  means  of  labor,  is  to  order  labor,  and  to 
divide  its  returns  according  to  the  amount  performed. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  how  certainly  this  arrange- 
ment must  result  in  the  most  extended  and  grievous 
tyranny.  The  small  communities  referred  to  have 
chiefly  failed  through  the  weakness  of  the  directing  and 
governing  power.  In  a  general  break  up  of  custom,  a 
complete  giving  way  of  economic  law,  there  must  be  at 
hand  some  strong  controlling  power,  or  all  things  will 
fall  speedily  into  disorder  and  ruin.  If  we  look  to  the 
state  for  this  universal  control,  its  authority  and  exer- 
cise of  authority  must  be  greater,  far  greater,  than  any  of 
which  we  have  any  record.  The  most  complete  and 
pervasive  tyranny  possible  would  become  an  immediate 


246 


SOCIOLOGY. 


necessity.  Such  a  tyranny,"  guiding  all  one's  daily  work, 
and  determining  its  rewards,  is  to  be  submitted  to  for 
the  sake  of  equality,  yet  equality  would  at  once  perish 
under  it.  A  state  with  this  amount  of  labor  laid  upon 
it  would  find  immediate  representation  in  a  large  class. 
This  class  would  certainly  usurp  the  astonishing  power 
put  in  their  hands.  Its  exercise  would  be  a  necessity, 
and  would  quickly  become  a  pleasure  and  an  interest. 
There  could  be  no  more  direct,  and  no  shorter,  road  to 
the  most  intolerable  tyranny  of  a  class  combining  in 
their  office  both  wealth  and  power. 

Socialism  would  also  be  attended  at  once  with  a 
great  waste  of  wealth.  The  wealth  of  to-day  stands 
represented  in  large  part  by  luxurious  dwellings,  rich 
products  and  the  means  employed  in  their  production ; 
in  the  appliances  of  travel  and  the  various  forms  of  free 
and  commodious  life.  Destroy  private  ownership,  and 
most  of  this  wealth  would  disappear.  There  would  be 
none  who  could  make  any  sufficient  use  of  it,  who 
could  be  profited  by  it.  A  poor  man  does  not  wish 
that  a  dwelling  should  be  given  him  if  it  is  to  involve  an 
expenditure  far  beyond  his  income.  His  comforts  are 
diminished  not  increased  by  it.  He  is  not  lifted  by 
his  surroundings  but  only  degrades  them.  All  the 
products  that  have  reference  to  wealth  would  lose  their 
value,  if  wealth  were  wanting  to  purchase  and  employ 
them.  The  poor  would  succeed  in  destroying  an  im- 
mense amount  of  property,  not  in  sharing  it.  Incident 
to  this  loss  there  would  come  stringency  in  every  form 
of  production,  and  the  market  of  necessities  would  be 
relatively  empty. 

There  would  at  once  be  an  end  to  most  of  that  desire 
and  that  effort  for  improvement  which  give  rise  to  civil- 
ization. The  equality  secured  would  largely  be  that  of 


SOCIAL  PROBLEMS.  247 

poverty,  that  which  belongs  to  a  barbarous  community. 
Production,  reduced  in  all  forms  to  days'  wages,  would 
give  small  returns  and  narrow  possibilities.  An  imme- 
diate decay  of  impulse  would  follow,  and  this  decay 
would  increase  by  its  own  extension.  Society  would 
shortly  find  itself,  unless  the  tyranny  to  which  we  have 
referred  became  strong  enough  to  check  the  movement, 
on  a  rapid  march  toward  barbarism.  There  would  shortly 
be  neither  the  proffer  of  liberal  enjoyments,  nor  the  power 
to  win  them. 

Another  incident  of  the  movement  would  greatly  aid 
this  result,  and  that  is  the  violence  and  injustice  which 
are  to  institute  it.  We  cannot  raise  hellish  passions  for 
one  end,  and  not  find  them  present  for  all  ends.  We 
cannot  sweep  away  the  restraints  of  custom,  and  re- 
store them  again  at  pleasure.  The  weak,  constructive 
sentiments  of  the  socialist,  unaided  by  experience,  un- 
confirmed by  habit,  would  be  mere  flax  in  the  fire  in 
this  general  conflagration.  One  thing  especially  which 
augurs  evil,  and  that  only,  is,  that  modern  socialism,  un- 
taught by  the  past,  bids  defiance  at  the  outset  to  the 
religious  sentiment,  the  most  organic  of  all  forces. 
Socialism,  under  its  present  guidance,  would  be  the 
breaking  loose  of  all  the  diabolical  forms  of  ruin  and 
overthrow. 

One  further  result  would  of  course  follow,^indeed  it 
is  so  direct  as  almost  to  be  aimed  at — and  that  is  the 
thrusting  aside  of  all  benevolence,  good-will.  Coerced 
equality  leaves  no  room  for  it.  Kindly  sentiments  would 
first  wither  away  under  the  fierce  heat  of  malign  passions, 
and  would  later,  in  the  universally  hard  conditions  of 
life,  find  very  little  to  restore  them.  Especially  would 
this  be  true  if  the  family,  the  chief  nurse  of  milder  feel- 
ing in  savage  life,  is  also  to  give  way. 


248 


SOCIOLOGY. 


Of  the  two  things  aimed  at  by  socialism,  liberty  and 
equality,  one  must  necessarily  perish ;  more  likely  both 
would  perish.  If  equality  were  preserved,  it  would  be  by 
most  searching  and  intolerable  tyranny ;  and  this  tyranny 
itself  would  open  an  instant  attack  on  equality.  No 
scheme  was  ever  offered  to  men,  in  which  more  was  to 
be  done  with  fewer  resources,  in  which  the  hopes  were 
larger  and  the  reasons  less,  than  in  the  scheme  laid  down 
by  socialism.  What  men  want  is  a  balanced  movement 
between  equality  and  inequality.  Both  must  be  preserved. 
We  must  have,  to  the  full,  the  incentives  and  rewards 
of  enterprise.  We  must  have  also  the  justice  and  the 
benevolence  which  will  order  the  division  of  returns  both 
wisely  and  kindly.  These  double  tendencies  are  our  or- 
ganic powers  and  cannot  be  sacrificed  without  the  loss  of 
organization. 

Socialism,  as  it  now  offers  itself,  is  a  nemesis,  threat- 
ening with  instant  and  condign  punishment  all  social 
negligence  and  selfishness.  It  is  the  coming  storm  that 
will  clear  a  too  sultry  social  atmosphere.  The  safe- 
guards against  it  are  obvious  and  ample.  They  are  that 
absolute  justice,  that  watchful  aid,  which  put  workmen 
on  the  side  of  order,  which  make  them  with  us  heirs  of 
life.  We  can  easily  draw  the  lightning  out  of  the  thun- 
der-cloud, if  we  give  room  for  all  enterprise,  for  all 
buoyant  social  material  to  rise  to  its  own  level.  Com- 
binations of  workmen  present  their  claims,  oftentimes 
just  ones.  Society  cannot  be  too  quick  in  consider- 
ing them,  in  responding  to  every  correct  principle.  If 
society  plants  itself  firmly  on  these  two  supports,  com. 
plete  justice  and  large  benevolence,  it  cannot  be  pushed 
from  its  base,  and  w,  indeed,  will  even  desire  to  do  it. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   GOAL. 

§  I.  No  inquiries  should  be  more  fruitful,  both  directly 
and  indirectly,  than  those  of  sociology.  The  progress 
of  men  in  all  directions  will  ultimately  turn  on  the  full 
and  favorable  development  of  those  powers  and  princi- 
ples by  which  they  are  organized  with  each  other  in 
society.  The  most  complete  and  vivid  expression  for 
the  perfection  of  human  life  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
It  implies  that  spiritual  development  in  each  member  of 
the  kingdom,  and  that  helpfulness  and  gracious  affection 
of  all  members  toward  each  other,  which  are  associated 
with  the  law  of  love.  Nor  is  this  goal  of  faith  less  the 
goal  of  social  progress.  Organization  among  men  means 
complete  individual  power,  and  ready  and  affectionate 
service.  Anything  short  of  this  is  something  less  than 
the  needs,  less  than  the  predictions,  which  lie  in  the 
nature  of  man,  his  lines  of  growth  and  the  favor  of  God. 

This  Kingdom  of  Heaven  involves  two  things,  which 
stand  correlated  with  each  other,  individual  growth  and 
collective,  organic  power ;  increased  functions  and  in- 
creased life  overshadowing  and  using  those  functions. 
We  ourselves  and  society,  which  is  greater  than  our- 
selves and  is  present  with  commanding  power  and  firm 
limits,  these  are  the  conditions  of  development  and  these 
are  the  conspicuous  terms  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
Human  life  combines  tendencies  seemingly  incompat- 
ible, but  really  antithetic  and  constructive  constituents 
of  order.  Necessity  and  liberty,  foresight  and  fortuity, 

249 


250 


SOCIOLOGY. 


heredity  and  variation,  imperial  right  and  personal  liberty, 
the  organic  energy  of  all  and  the  versatility  of  the  indi- 
vidual, justice  and  benevolence,  the  inequalities  incident 
to  enterprise  and  the  longed-for  equality  of  opportunities, 
are  some  phases  of  the  opposite  terms  which  must  be 
closely  maintained  in  thought  and  action,  or  life  sinks  into 
futile  expenditure  under  a  single  impulse. 

The  most  striking  moral  equilibrium  in  individual  life 
is  that  between  justice  and  benevolence.  If  justice  is 
set  aside  in  behalf  of  benevolence,  the  only  foundation 
on  which  benevolence  can  be  built  is  swept  away.  Not 
till  one  knows  his  own  is  there  any  room  for  a  gift.  The 
Christian  injunction  that  we  are  to  bear  one  another's 
burdens  and  so  fulfil  the  law  of  love,  implies  that  each 
man  has,  in  a  deeper  sense,  his  own  particular  burden, 
under  the  law  of  labor.  It  is  this  proper  and  peculiar 
burden  that  we  are  to  lighten  by  good-will.  All  theo- 
ries of  social  progress  must  combine,  in  their  full  primi- 
tive force,  these  two  laws  of  labor  and  love,  duty  and 
gift.  The  skeleton  of  order  given  by  justice  passes 
into  life  and  beauty  by  the  growth  of  the  affections ;  the 
higher  is  induced  upon  the  lower  and  sustained  by  it. 

Among  the  equilibriums  which  give  action  and  poise 
in  social  life  none  is  more  significant  tjian  that  between 
the  individual  and  the  community.  All  real  strength, 
all  true  growth  are  ultimately  achieved  in  and  by  the 
individual.  Personal  strength  and  perfection  are  the 
measure  of  all  perfection  and  strength.  Yet  this  per- 
fection and  strength  can  only  show  themselves  in  the 
community  and  toward  the  community,  and  under  the 
conditions  which  the  community  itself  assigns  them. 

§  2.  Of  the  two  terms  which  unite  in  society,  commu- 
nal force  has  suffered  depreciation  in  our  thoughts.  The 
sentiment  of  Galton  is  in  order.  We  should  have  '*  a 


THE  GOAL.  2$  I 

greater  sense  of  moral  freedom  and  responsibility  and 
opportunity  in  guiding  and  furthering  (social)  evolution." 
"  Strong,  tense,  elastic  organization  "  is  called  for.  Pre- 
cisely this  we  desire.  The  tendency  toward  individua- 
tion  has  accomplished  its  immediate  purpose  in  promot- 
ing liberty  and  personal  responsibility.  It  is  now  pass- 
ing into  excess,  and  is  endangering  the  very  conditions 
under  which  alone  liberty  is  of  any  worth,  or  can  be 
maintained.  The  activity,  the  enterprise,  the  moral  force 
of  the  individual  are  lost  in  futile  effort — ineffective  evap- 
oration— in  a  community  that  does  not  give  stern  condi- 
tions of  order,  that  does  not  turn  rights  into  laws,  the 
common  weal  into  an  indiscerptible  claim. 

Among  the  essential  terms  in  progress  is  this  very 
sense  of  justice,  of  rights  that  are  to  be  affirmed,  of 
claims  of  the  common  life  that  are  to  be  held  supreme. 
When,  in  social  growth,  one  of  these  claims  is  reached, 
when  a  portion  of  the  community  reject  a  just  law,  and 
override  a  communal  interest,  progress  toward  social 
perfection  cannot  be  maintained  if  this  right  is  not 
asserted,  this  wrong  repelled.  If,  for  example,  the  sale 
of  intoxicating  drinks  is  to  proceed  in  defiance  of  the 
general  welfare,  we  cannot  hope  that  pure  moral  growth 
will  remove  this  evil..  The  evil  lies  largely  in  the  denial 
of  the  right  of  prohibition,  in  the  submission  of  general 
to  private  interest,  and  not  till  the  just  conclusion  is 
reached  and  asserted  can  a  true  adjustment  be  attained. 
The  weakness  which  prevents  the  assertion  of  right  be- 
trays a  fatally  feeble  moral  temper.  Moral  strength  will 
show  itself  and  enlarge  itself  at  this  very  point,  discern- 
ment and  maintenance  of  right.  Men  are  not  trained 
toward  righteousness  by  remaining  uncontradicted  in 
unrighteousness.  If  water  is  to  be  carried  across  a 
chasm,  it  must  be  in  a  conduit.  Stanch  statement  and 


252 


SOCIOLOGY. 


firm  enforcement  are  the  conduit  in  which  a  flagging 
moral  sentiment  in  the  popular  mind  is  borne  over  a 
break  in  civil  law  and  social  custom. 

We  plead  for  "  a  strong,  tense,  elastic  organization," 
which  puts  the  individual  on  his  feet,  and  gives  him  the 
arena  of  his  powers.  Men  are  to  bear  in  mind  the  con- 
stant tendency  of  power  to  usurpation.  While  the  laws 
of  industry  are  not  to  be  set  aside,  fresh  conditions  are 
to  be  constantly  provided  for  their  fair  and  favorable 
operation.  Society  is  to  strive  for  a  perpetual  renewal 
of  opportunities  and  redistribution  of  advantages,  so  that 
every  child  shall  come  from  the  cradle  to  a  fresh  world 
with  fresh  incentives,  not  to  one  overworn  and  used  up 
for  him  by  the  errors  of  past  generations.  Industrial 
usurpations  are  no  more  sacred  than  those  of  civil  power ; 
tyranny  may  be  in  the  possession  of  property  just  as  cer- 
tainly as  in  that  of  authority.  Indeed,  the  tyranny  of 
ownership  may  become  the  more  subtile  and  extended 
of  the  two.  In  a  matter  of  such  universal  interest  as 
personal  opportunity  and  discipline,  the  gist  of  every 
wise  measure  is  found  in  a  maintenance  of  motives,  a 
renovated  and  freshly  habilitated  life.  Society  should 
look  sharply  to  the  laws  of  social  hereditament,  should 
see  what  we  do  inherit,  and  what  we  ought  to  inherit, 
and  this  with  a  supreme  sense  of  the  right  of  the  race 
overshadowing  that  of  personal  and  private  rights. 

Not  only  is  it  impossible  to  achieve  personal,  moral 
growth  aside  from  the  community,  this  personal  strength 
being  gained  gives  at  once  the  conditions  of  successfully 
combined  action.  The  objections  to  organic  effort  in 
society  fall  to  the  ground  just  in  the  degree  in  which  men 
attain  private  virtue.  Nothing  can  withhold  men  from 
the  collective  use  of  their  collective  powers,  any  more 
than  from  the  private  use  of  their  private  powers.  The 


THE  GOAL.  253 

conditions  of  success  in  the  two  directions  are  the  same. 
The  moral  field  is  the  complete  field  of  separate  and 
conjoint  action,  and  growth,  whatever  may  be  our 
theories  about  it,  is  sure  to  extend  into  and  over  this 
entire  ground.  The  doctrine  of  evolution  has  led  us  to 
give  fresh  weight  to  the  more  unconscious,  organic  forces 
which  belong  to  the  earlier  stages  of  social  progress. 
We  are  not  to  forget,  however,  that  these  forces  are 
losing  value  relatively,  and  are  falling  more  and  more 
into  the  shadow  of  conscious,  well-devised  moral  effort. 
The  very  law  of  evolution  leads  to  this  result,  the  in- 
creased predominance  of  the  higher  intellectual  processes 
over  the  lower  organic  ones. 

We  should  especially  keep  this  fact  before  us  in  the 
action  of  political  parties,  those  very  important  factors 
with  us  in  social  progress.  These  parties  tend  rapidly 
to  deteriorate  under  narrow,  obscure,  personal  incentives. 
They  can  only  be  renewed  in  efficiency  and  value  by  a 
direct  moral  process,  bringing  new  issues  into  politics  as 
new  organizing  powers.  A  loss  of  issues  is  incident  to 
our  political  action, — much  more  so  than  to  the  hourly 
antagonism  of  parties  in  England  over  new  questions  and 
the  shifting  phases  of  old  ones — and  these  issues  can 
only  be  renewed  by  a  moral  temper  which  strikes  vig- 
orously into  social  life,  its  own  proper  life. 

§  3.  The  base  incidents  of  a  bad  inheritance  are  painfully 
disclosed  in  the  impurity  of  large  cities.  Certainly  there 
is  no  worse  entail  of  privileged  classes  than  a  disposition 
on  their  part  to  disregard  the  personal  purity  of  those 
below  them  in  the  social  scale.  Such  a  disposition  has 
often  been  remarked  in  English  society.  Indeed,  it 
follows  naturally,  almost  inevitably,  from  the  existence 
of  classes  favored  by  law  and  by  custom.  The  true 
democratic  sentiment  of  an  equality  of  personal  rights 


SOCIOLOGY. 

is  lost ;  and  lost  in  one  direction  it  is  easily  obscured  in 
other  directions.  If  there  is  a  class  whose  conditions 
of  prosperity  are  not  esteemed  of  equal  moment  with 
those  of  another  class,  it  is  only  a  slight  enlargement  of 
the  same  sentiment  to  feel  that  their  purity  is  also  a 
secondary  consideration.  Nothing  is  more  contagious 
than  tyranny,  and  no  pains  are  to  be  spared  in  making 
absolute  justice  the  basis  of  society.  The  essential  idea 
of  justice  is  equality  in  claims.  Till  this  is  reached  there 
is  no  sufficient  foundation  for  the  superstructure  of  re- 
ligious affection. 

The  amusements  of  a  distinctively  wealthy  class  must 
always  tend  toward  license  and  depredation.  Labor 
gives  the  conditions  of  healthy,  pleasurable  relaxation; 
indolence  and  indulgence  take  them  away.  Satiety  and 
ennui  almost  compel  excess,  as  a  means  of  rallying  the 
jaded  senses.  Those  who  are  at  their  wits'  ends  to  find 
amusement  are  not  likely  to  be  scrupulous  in  their  regard 
of  the  rights  of  others.  When  one  has  lost  the  first 
terms  in  human  life,  self-helpfulness  and  helpfulness  of 
others,  he  cannot  well  retain  the  more  remote  feelings  of 
obligation  and  respect  attendant  on  them.  Almost  all 
the  reckless  forms  of  amusement  in  which  the  interests  of 
society  are  sacrificed  are  found  with  those  subject  either 
to  the  indolence  of  vice  or  the  indolence  of  wealth.  The 
lowest  and  the  highest  in  society  readily  affiliate  at  this 
point  of  vicious  indulgence.  Games  and  races, — as  meth- 
ods of  amusement — gambling,  dog-fights  and  prize-fights, 
combine  these  two  classes  in  an  ugly  fellowship  of  de- 
praved tastes. 

§  4.  If  we  distinguish  science,  as  it  is  so  often  dis- 
tinguished, from  philosophy  and  religion,  we  must  mean 
by  it  physical  science,  a  knowledge  of  material  facts  and 
laws.  The  wonderful  progress  which  is  being  made  in 


THE  GOAL. 


255 


this  knowledge  is  putting  grand  resources  of  growth  at 
the  disposal  o*f  society.  It  has  been  urged  in  Political 
Economy  that  a  sudden  advance  in  favoring  conditions  is 
especially  productive  of  growth  in  the  laboring  classes. 
Incentives  and  opportunities  unite  in  an  appreciable  mo- 
tive, and  so  carry  forward  an  entire  class.  New  ground 
is  gained,  new  impulses  are  called  out,  and  a  favoring 
series  of  actions  and  reactions  established.  A  social 
movement  is  thus  completed  and  fortified  within  itself 
against  retreat. 

The  rapid  change  in  the  form  and  degree  of  production 
which  has  accompanied  scientific  inquiry  ought  to  lift  and 
abundantly  aid  social  life.  The  world  is  disclosing  great 
resources  of  wealth  and  power,  and  society  finds  itself 
called  to  a  new  inheritance  and  a  fresh  division  of  gains. 
The  popular  imagination  is  captivated  by  the  promise, 
and  science  has  become  a  word  of  invocation  and  magic 
on  the  lips  of  the  people. 

Yet  this  aid,  close  to  us  as  it  seems  to  be,  and  desirable 
as  it  is,  cannot  be  secured,  in  any  good  degree,  except 
in  connection  with  active,  moral  forces.  A  period  of 
discovery  and  invention  should  preeminently  be  one  of 
social  growth  and  moral  activity ;  that  new  opportunities 
may  be  put  to  new  purposes,  and  a  virgin  soil  be  made 
to  yield  a  virgin  life.  The  rich  fields  of  this  western 
continent  have  lifted  many  millions  many  degrees  in  the 
social  scale.  Much  of  this  momentum  is  lost,  however, 
from  the  want  of  the  moral  ability  to  improve  it.  If  we 
take  such  an  invention  as  that  of  the  sewing-machine, 
we  still  find  associated  with  it  the  same  extreme  labor, 
the  same  meagre  return,  that  attended  on  the  slow  work 
of  the  needle.  When  the  hand  of  labor  is  made  tenfold 
more  efficient  by  human  ingenuity,  human  love  should  be 
ready  to  give  it  at  the  same  time  the  opportunity  of  less 


256 


SOCIOLOGY. 


labor  and  larger  payment.  Commercial  principles  alone 
will  not  do  this;  they  will  often  do  the  very  reverse. 
We  must  look  for  the  true  amelioration  of  society  to 
higher  impulses,  in  hearty  activity  with  lower  ones,  and 
making  use  of  them  to  this  very  end  of  growth. 

Science  is  not  only  opening  up  for  us  world  within 
world,  it  is  greatly  helping  the  moral  problem  of  life  by 
bringing  to  it  new  interpretations ;  new  insight  into 
methods.  It  is  not  the  facts  of  science  that  have  occa- 
sioned perplexity  in  spiritual  thought,  but  the  specula- 
tions that  have  accompanied  these  facts.  These  specula- 
tions have  brought  us,  as  all  new  efforts  of  thought  will 
bring  us,  correction  of  old  errors,  and  some  new  errors  of 
their  own.  We  shall  not  easily  estimate  too  highly  the 
deeper,  broader  sense  of  law  which  we  owe  to  science. 
The  form  of  individual  and  social  action  is,  and  is  still 
more  to  be,  profoundly  altered  by  it.  Error  enters  only 
when  this  term  of  concurrent  physical  law — a  term  which 
has  become  new  by  being  so  much  more  extendedly  and 
profoundly  understood  than  hitherto — is  made  to  ex- 
clude its  correlative  term, — the  intellectual,  moral  power 
that  is  to  put  it  to  use,  that  is  to  gather  the  honey  from 
the  carcass  of  the  lion.  The  physical  world  is  the 
counterpart  of  the  moral  world,  and  cannot  be  grasped 
in  its  method  without  bringing  light  to  every  social  and 
religious  problem.  This,  indeed,  is  the  greater  service  of 
science,  and  will  help  to  furnish  those  very  incentives  of 
which  we  have  spoken  as  so  needful  to  accompany  a 
fresh  accession  of  means.  The  new  theology  is  the  old 
theology  corrected  by  scientific  and  philosophic  thought, 
and  combined  with  the  wider  temper  of  inquiry  now  prev- 
alent. Civilization  is  force  wedded  to  ideas,  and  science 
is  furnishing  new  forces  and  also  helping  to  give  birth  to 
new  ideas. 


THE  GOAL. 


257 


Social  ideas  certainly  need  the  correction,  enlargement 
and  softened  sentiment  incident  to  faith  and  philosophy. 
The  individuation  which  has  become  so  extreme  with 
us  is  due,  in  part,  to  the  scientific  temper,  deducing 
society  from  the  individual,  not  merely  as  the  primary, 
but  as  the  one  productive,  term.  The  impalpable,  spirit- 
ual power  which  inheres  in  society  for  its  construction 
and  government  has  not  been  sufficiently  recognized  by 
science.  Science  always  lays  more  stress  on  the  form  of 
action  than  on  its  inner  energy.  We  wish,  however,  not 
to  stint  our  acknowledgment  of  the  great  work  accom- 
plished by  science,  nor  of  the  light  it  carries  with  it  into 
the  spiritual  world,  nor  of  the  unity  it  helps  to  impart  to 
all  our  knowledge.  If  science  alone  does  not  reach  the 
very  soul  of  the  universe,  it  gives  a  suitable  body  for  that 
soul  to  animate  and  occupy,  when  it  is  found  by  philos- 
ophy and  faith. 

§  5.  Philosophy,  as  contrasted  with  science,  stands  for 
all  that  knowledge  which  centres  in  mind  and  finds  ex- 
planation in  the  laws  of  mind.  A  sound  philosophy 
must  always  be  of  leading  importance  in  sociology. 
That  physical  inquiry  will  aid  intellectual  research  is 
quite  certain;  that  it  will  never  replace  it,  is  still  more 
certain.  A  philosophy  that  is  an  annex  to  science  is  a 
poor  affair.  A  reaction  is  already  felt  toward  more 
purely  spiritual  thought.  Empirical  systems  are  in- 
quiring, what  and  -how  much  religion  is  possible  to 
them  ;  while  education  is  busy,  under  a  new  anxiety  and 
responsibility,  with  manliness,  social  well-being,  and  spir- 
itual strength. 

Human  life,  as  including  spontaneity  and  responsi- 
bility, as  reconciling  liberty  in  the  individual  with  large 
claims  in  the  community,  as  dealing  with  spiritual  in- 
centives, the  very  substance  of  all  physical  conditions, 
17 


258 


SOCIOLOGY. 


calls  loudly  for  philosophy.  Philosophy  recognizes 
at  once  the  fact;  that  the  one  significant  fact  in  ra- 
tional life  is  reason  itself;  that  the  secrets  of  life  are 
in  life,  and  not  somewhere  else  ;  and  that  explanation 
means  not  the  explaining  away  of  things,  but  a  render- 
ing to  the  mind  of  their  inner  force.  The  productive 
values  of  thought  are  made  sound  currency  in  the 
spiritual  world  by  a  free  recognition  of  the  intrinsic 
worth  of  thought  itself.  Thought  is  a  real  and  a  cen- 
tral light.  Thought  is  empirical  in  that  it  is  to  explain 
a  universe  empirically  given,  and  with  which  it  stands 
on  constant  terms  of  action  and  reaction ;  thought  is 
intuitive  in  that  its  sensitivity  to  light,  and  its  power 
to  give  light,  are  its  own — its  laws  of  vision  go  with 
vision,  its  reasons  remain  reasons,  and  penetrate  the 
world  because  the  world  is  transparent  to  them.  Man 
must  return  to  himself,  will  sooner  or  later  return  to 
himself,  when  he  has  to  do  with  spiritual  problems. 
The  coming  to  himself  of  the  prodigal  son  was  only 
a  more  just  estimate  of  the.  inner  and  the  outer 
terms  of  life.  Wise  thoughts  are  the  ripe  fruit  of  the 
tree  of  knowledge.  The  extreme  socialism  of  our  time 
is  made  almost  uniformly  to  rest  on  materialism.  The 
ideas,  rights,  duties,  hopes,  fears  which  inspire  it  are 
those  of  materialism.  This  portentous  product  is  the 
direct  result  of  misdirected  philosophy.  Its  watchword 
of  promise  is  science,  not  philosophy  nor  faith. 

§  6.  Religion,  as  a  terra  in  social  growth,  while  it 
shares  to  the  full  the  inertia  of  custom  and  the  slow 
creeping  of  conventional  sentiment,  must  ultimately 
rest  on  philosophy,  and  accept  the  position  which  phi- 
losophy assigns  it.  It  is,  indeed,  a  branch  of  philosophy. 
It  is  strange  that  any  should  find  disparagement  in 
this  assertion,  as  it  is  simply  saying  that  religion  makes 


THE  GOAL. 


259 


its  appeal  to,  and  is  embraced  in,  the  highest  reason. 
Religion,  as  a  force  in  the  world,  finds  its  footing,  first, 
in  the  nature  of  man,  and,  second,  in  the  spiritual  bear- 
ing of  the  physical  laws  which  encompass  men,  and 
give  them  the  conditions  of  development.  We  need 
not  here  consider  the  part  which  revelation  plays  in 
religion.  The  truths  of  religion  are  revealed,  so  far  as 
revealed,  because  they  are  true  ;  that  is  because  they 
are  implanted  in  the  constitution  of  things,  in  the  con- 
stitution of  mind.  Revelation  can  do  nothing  but  in- 
terpret creation.  If  these  alleged  truths  were  not 
found  to  be  fundamentally  concurrent  with  the  uni- 
verse, they  would  be  hopelessly  discredited  by  this  dis- 
crepancy. Revelation,  therefore,  is  nothing  more  than 
disclosure,  and  places  its  truths  on  precisely  the  same 
basis  as  those  of  inquiry.  The  religious  question,  there- 
fore, is  simply  the  question  :  Whether  mind  is  the  ulti- 
mate, comprehensive  fact  in  the  universe  ?  Whether 
the  universe  is  primarily  rational,  spiritual  ?  This  is  an 
inquiry  which  always  has  interested  and  always  must 
profoundly  interest  the  human  mind,  and  one  which 
it  proposes  again  and  again,  under  many  forms,  in  every 
stage  of  development.  By  far  the  most  universal  an- 
swer, and  one  of  increasing  cogency,  has  been  in  the 
affirmative.  Religion  furnishes  the  highest  incentives 
for  the  highest  action.  It  takes  motives  in  the  universe 
at  their  maximum.  If  it  fails  in  any  one  place,  time, 
person  to  do  this, — as  it  constantly  does  fail — it  fails 
because  of  that  place,  time,  person.  It  renews  itself 
elsewhere  with  larger  gifts.  The  universal  affirmation 
of  religion,  that  to  which  all  its  affirmations  are  tending, 
no  matter  how  remote  they  may  seem  to  be,  is  that 
supreme  wisdom  and  goodness  lie  at  the  centre  of  all 
things ;  wisdom  and  goodness  that  rise  into  the  clear 


26o  SOCIOLOGY. 

light  of  consciousness,  that  are  abundantly  conscious  to 
themselves  of  their  own  nature  and  purpose. 

This  affirmation — badly  as  it  may  be  rendered  in  the 
terms  of  any  given  faith — confers  upon  thought  the 
most  adequate  line  of  action,  and  the  most  varied  and 
deepest  motives  in  pursuing  it.  It  appeals  to  the  en- 
tire nature  of  man  as  nothing  else  can  appeal  to  it.  If 
the  two  laws  of  love  are  laws  of  God,  are  incorporated  in 
every  relation,  and  concurrent  with  all  cosmical  move- 
ment, then  there  is  a  spiritual  evolution  before  us  which 
evokes  the  deepest  desire,  calls  out  the  largest  effort, 
enkindles  the  most  enthusiastic  hope,  and  offers  the 
most  comprehensive  construction.  In  proportion  as 
men  doubt  these  commands,  as  those  of  nature,  human 
nature  and  society,  must  their  efforts  be  weakened  for 
the  organization  of  men  and  the  realization  of  a  spiritual 
harmony.  The  goal  of  life  is  lost.  We  believe  most  fully 
that  men  will  always  return  to  religious  faith,  and  that 
religious  faith  will  return  to  them,  because  this  faith  is 
the  most  profound  and  hopeful  rendering  of  the  world, 
and  one  that  gives  by  far  the  largest  play  to  life  in  it. 
Though  it  may  leave  darkness  at  many  points,  it  also 
gives  intense  light,  and  that  light  falls  upon  men. 

Religious  truth  is  the  truth  in  which  science  and 
philosophy  meet  in  the  most  complete  harmony,  in 
which  events  that  otherwise  eddy  at  random  assume  a 
well-defined  cosmic  current,  in  which  a  spirit  otherwise 
alien,  lost  in  the  multiplicity  of  things  and  the  eternity 
of  events,  finds  the  clue  of  thought,  finds  itself ;  finds 
the  goal  of  effort ;  finds  the  Divine  Mind,  and  hence- 
forth lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being  in  him,  its  true 
spiritual  atmosphere.  A  sociology  that  is  not  animated 
by  faith  will  be  a  faint-hearted,  fearful,  and  remote 
seeking  after  the  truth — obscurely  seen,  and  that  beyond 


THE  GOAL.  261 

many  obstructions.  Above  all  impulses  the  popular 
impulse  must  be  one  of  faith,  one  of  quick  belief,  and 
ready  obedience.  Religion  can  do  nothing  completely 
and  finally  without  science  and  philosophy  ;  and  science 
and  philosophy  issue  in  nothing  to  any  great  purpose 
without  religion.  The  purification,  the  rationaliza- 
tion, the  renewal  and  re-establishment  of  the  religious 
impulse  are  fundamental  in  all  social  construction. 

§  7.  As  religion  is  the  culmination  of  truth  in  world- 
wide motives,  is  the  birth  of  a  new  spiritual  life  by  virtue 
of  faith  in  spiritual  things,  so  art  is  the  union  of  spirit 
and  form — informing  idea  and  outward  expression — in  a 
complete  product,  a  beautiful  world, — in  highest  phrase— 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Art  unites  the  spiritual  and 
the  physical  in  perfect  being.  It  adds  that  supreme, 
emotional  perfection  to  life  which  we  term  beauty.  It 
may  do  this  in  various  departments  and  in  various  de- 
grees, and  so  be  partial  and  disproportionate.  It  may 
misunderstand  the  inner  thought,  and  so  be  perverse ; 
yet  art,  like  science  and  philosophy  and  religion,  has  a 
goal  of  perfection  towards  which  it  is,  with  much  wander- 
ing and  many  errors,  finding  its  way. 

Art  plays  an  important  part  in  sociology,  not  only  as 
completing  stages  of  progress,  but  often  as  indicating  the 
true  direction,  when  men  are  being  baffled  by  misapplied 
energy.  In  some  sense  beauty,  perfection  of  form,  is  the 
culmination  of  science,  philosophy  and  faith,  as  it  is  the 
fulness  and  force  of  the  inner  life,  and  its  complete  mas- 
tery of  the  physical  terms  at  its  disposal.  There  is  not 
closer  union  than  that  between  true  faith  and  true  art. 
A  faith  that  misses  fortunate,  fruitful  expression,  is  not 
true  religion ;  and  an  expression  that  narrows  or  re- 
presses the  spirit  is  not  true  art.  Art  is  that  completion 


262  SOCIOLOGY. 

of  the  creative  act  in  all  its  branches  which  leads  us  to 
pronounce  the  product  very  good. 

§  8.  We  are  now  struggling  between  adverse  tendencies, 
— we  have  fallen  into  a  place  where  two  seas  meet- 
authority  and  reason.  We  are  ready  for  neither  the  one 
nor  the  other.  We  are  in  transition  between  them. 
Authority  is  far  too  restrictive  for  the  stronger  minds ; 
reason  is  far  too  supersensible  for  the  weaker  minds. 
Many  who  are  throwing  themselves  on  reason,  do  it  so 
rashly  as  to  sink  almost  at  once,  like  the  too  bold  apos- 
tle. Nothing  is  more  cautious  than  reason.  To  reason 
we  are  coming,  we  must  come,  not  all  and  every  one  of  us 
at  once,  but  slowly,  as  human  thought  shapes  itself  to  it- 
self. Reason  is  the  primitive  germ,  the  ever  present  plas- 
tic energy,  of  human  life  in  its  enlarging  forms. 

While  we  are  making  this  change  of  base  there  will  be 
losses,  and  some  will  wander  quite  away,  but  the  change 
must  be  made,  and  will  give  us  a  strength  not  before 
dreamed  of.  Although  authority  always  claims  to  rest 
on  reason,  it  seeks  its  reasons  with  such  haste  and  di- 
vision of  sentiment  as  often  to  discredit  its  assumption. 
Reason,  sound  reason,  truth  cautiously  and  widely  pur- 
sued, is  now  to  penetrate  deeply  through  the  fertile  soil 
of  the  human  mind  and  give  it  the  conditions  of  con- 
stant and  superlative  production.  The  feeling  that  real 
knowledge  and  true  virtue  are  alien  to  each  other  is  to 
pass  away.  To  favor  this  transfer,  to  reduce  its  dangers, 
is  the  office  of  every  earnest  mind,  resting  on  the  unity 
of  the  divine  thought. 

It  is  the  people,  the  great  army,  who  seem  to  join  this 
movement  slowly  and  reluctantly,  who  at  no  time  fully 
measure  its  significance,  that  after  all  hold  it  firm,  and 
make  it  comparatively  safe.  The  truths,  the  munitions, 
which  the  over  sanguine  disciples  of  reason  are  ready  to 


THE  COAL. 


263 


cast  away,  will  again  be  gathered  up ;  the  hasty  mistakes 
they  have  made  will  be  corrected.  And  the  human  host 
will  move  to  its  new  camp,  with  its  history,  its  achieve- 
ments, its  resources,  all  with  it.  This  movement,  truly 
new  in  human  progress,  is  neither  desertion  nor  retreat,  it 
is  advance  under  better  terms.  The  continuity  of  the 
popular  life  is  the  safety  of  society,  of  science,  philosophy 
and  religion.  The  true  gospel  is  to  be  preached  to  every 
creature. 

§  9.  It  is  also  true  that  in  each  new  phase  of  develop- 
ment, the  spiritual  terms  will  carry  with  them  the  physi- 
cal terms,  and  grow  out  of  them ;  that  the  physical  will 
be  the  cast  in  which  the  spiritual  is  contained.  Looking 
on  the  physical  terms  of  our  lives  as  the  clay  subject  to 
our  spiritual  powers,  we  regard  them  too  narrowly.  The 
physical  is  not  only  the  material  of  which  all  our  struct- 
ures are  built,  that  which  turns  them  from  dreams  of 
fancy  into  wood  and  iron  and  stone,  it  is  for  more  than 
this.  Holding  the  products  of  mind  it  moves  forward  with 
mind,  and  is  full  of  fresh  suggestion  to  it.  Science  is 
quite  right  in  exalting  experience,  in  making  it  the  meas- 
ure and  test  of  reason,  since  it  is  in  this  experience  that 
reason  is  regnant  in  the  world  about  us.  This  world  is 
our  tether,  binding  us  to  rational  centres. 

No  form  of  effort  more  than  sociology,  constantly  deal- 
ing with  spiritual  forces,  needs  to  bear  in  mind  how  far 
they  are  dependent  on  and  controlled  by  physical  facts, 
how  often  our  only  practical  method  of  approach  to  them 
lies  through  the  physical  world.  If  we  know  the  body, 
we  know  very  much  of  the  mind  which  inhabits  it ;  if  we 
know  the  physical  and  social  condition  of  a  class,  we  know 
in  a  high  degree  what  are  the  rational  things  to  be  expected 
of  it,  and  done  for  it.  The  one  truth  the  scientist  needs 
to  learn  afresh  is  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  a  spir- 


264 


SOCIOLOGY. 


itual  kingdom  ;  the  one  thing  the  religionist  needs  to  re- 
member is  that  it  is  built  on  the  earth,  and  must  look  to  its 
foundations  for  strength.  The  true  synthesis  of  the  uni- 
verse of  God,  physical  and  spiritual,  is  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  We  can  never  in  society  safely  neglect  the  or- 
ganic form,  the  civil  law,  that  lies  next  in  order ;  nor  can 
we  look  to  this  form  alone  for  success.  Perfection  is,  and, 
far  more  profoundly,  is  not,  a  formal  thing.  If  we  lay 
broad  and  complete  foundations  for  society  in  justice  ;  if 
we  devote  the  acquisitions  of  science  to  the  well-being  of 
men ;  if  we  permeate  our  social  philosophy  with  the  spirit 
of  Christ,  his  kingdom,  with  those  constant  increments 
which  belong  to  growth,  is  sure  to  come.  If  the  universe 
contains,  as  its  very  centre  of  energy,  the  conditions  of  a 
perfect  social  state,  this  fact  is  the  fundamental  truth  of 
religion,  that  of  the  Divine  Presence.  If  it  does  not  con- 
tain these  concurrent  possibilities,  we  weary  ourselves  to 
no  purpose,  we  labor  against  conflicting  forces  far  too 
strong  for  us,  and  shall  be  pulled  in  pieces  by  them.  If 
we  see  this  light,  we  shall  easily  walk  in  it,  and  it  is  the 
conjoint  light  of  science,  philosophy  and  faith. 


KNICKERBOCKER  NUCCETS 

Gesta  Romanorum.    Tales  of  the  Old  Monks.    Edited  by  C.  SWAN,  $i  oo 
Headlong  Hall  and  Nightmare  Abbey.     By  THOS.  L.  PEACOCK,     i  oo 
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SLEEPY-HOLLOW  EDITION. 

l6MO,  WITH    FRONTISPIECE,    IN    NEW    STYLE    OF    BINDING,   WITH 
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COMPRISING  : 

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Deroes  of  the  IRations, 

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A  SERIES  of  biographical  studies  of  the  lives  and  work 
of  a  number  of  representative  historical  characters  about 
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With  the  life  of  each  typical  character  will  be  presented 
a  picture  of  the  National  conditions  surrounding  him 
during  his  career. 

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and  dramatic  "stories"  of  the  Men  and  of  the  events  con- 
nected with  them. 

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The   first    group    of   the    Series   will   comprise  twelve 
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Nelson,  and  the  Naval  Supremacy  of  England.  By  W.  CLARK  RUSSELL, 

author  of  "  The  Wreck  of  the  Grosvenor,"  etc.    (Ready  April  15,  1890.) 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  the  Struggle  of  Protestantism  for  Exist- 
ence.    By  C.  R.  L.  FLETCHER,  M.A.,  late  Fellow  of  All  Souls  College, 

Oxford. 
Pericles,  and  the  Golden  Age  of  Athens.     By  EVELYN  ABBOTT,  M.A., 

Fellow  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 
Alexander  the  Great,  and  the  Extension  of  Greek  Rule  and  of 

Greek  Ideas.     By  Prof.  BENJAMIN  I.  WHEELER,  Cornell  University. 
Theoderic  the  Goth,  the  Barbarian  Champion  of  Civilization.     By 

THOMAS  HODGKIN,  author  of  "  Italy  and  Her  Invaders,"  etc. 
Charlemagne,  the  Reorganizer  of  Europe.     By  Prof.  GEORGE  L.  BURR, 

Cornell  University. 
Henry  of  Navarre,  and  the  Huguenots  in  France.     By  P.  F.  WILLERT, 

M.A.,  Fellow  of  Exeter  College,  Oxford. 
William  of  Orange,  the  Founder  of  the  Dutch  Republic. 

By  RUTH  PUTNAM. 
Cicero,  and  the  Fall  of  the  Roman  Republic.     By  J.  L.  STRACHAN 

DAVIDSON,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 
Louis  XIV.,  and  the  Zenith  of  the  French  Monarchy.     By  ARTHUR 

HASSALL,  M.A.,  Senior  Student  of  Christ  Church  College,  Oxford. 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  and  the  Adventurers  of  England. 

By  A.  L.  SMITH,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 
Bismarck.     The  New  German  Empire  :  How  It  Arose ;  What  It 

Replaced  ;  And  What  It  Stands  For.     By  JAMES  SIME,  author  of 

"A  Life  of  Lessing,"  etc. 

To  be  followed  by  : 

Hannibal,  and  the  Struggle  between  Carthage  and  Rome. 

By  E.  A.  FREEMAN,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  Regius  Prof,  of  History  in  the 

University  of  Oxford. 
Alfred  the  Great,  and  the  First  Kingdom  in  England.     By  F.  YORK 

POWELL,  M.A.,  Senior  Student  of  Christ  Church  College,  Oxford. 
Charles  the  Bold,  and  the  Attempt  to  Found  a  Middle  Kingdom. 

By  R.  LODGE,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Brasenose  College,  Oxford. 
John  Calvin,  the  Hero  of  the  French  Protestants.     By  OWEN  M. 

EDWARDS,  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford. 
Oliver  Cromwell,  and  the  Rule  of  the  Puritans  in  England. 

By  CHARLES  FIRTH,  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 
Marlborough,  and  England  as  a  Military  Power. 

By  C.  W.  C.  OMAN,  A.M.,  Fellow  of  All  Souls  College,  Oxford. 
Julius  Caesar,  and  the  Organization  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

By  W.  WARDE  FOWLER,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford. 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

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